Advent '09
by demon sloth
Summary: Advent Calendar. Each chapter is a day and every day a new chapter. An unseasonably warm December has Lory dragging them half-way across the world - what on earth could go wrong? Light-hearted humour-centric fic.
1. Tuesday 1st

**Hello readers and welcome to ADVENT '09!**

**A little background before we get started. This is the third year I've written an Advent story. Basically, each chapter is a day and every day you get a new chapter – think advent calendar and you're pretty much there. **

**I was actually thinking about writing advent in a different fandom – but just as I was making up my mind I had a dream. Then, when I was reeling from that dream I had another dream involving CAPES and GLITTER.**

**So, yes. This advent comes from the first dream and next year's advent comes from the second. :P**

**ANYWAY! I decided to go a different way with it this year, sort of.**

**And no – I'm not telling you the pairing (though you can guess if you want)**

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**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the story is though.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

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Advent 09

December 1st – 24 days to go

* * *

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing...

...Sho was driving her _up the WALL_!

Kyoko crossed the road, trying to ignore the blond shadow that she had acquired on her way to the L.M.E. buildings.

Unfortunately for her, it seemed that Sho knew that she was trying to ignore him and was doing everything in his power to remedy that.

"Kyoko!" He called out from behind her, waving his hand to try and grab her attention.

And grab her attention it did...as well as everyone else's attention.

This included students on their way to school...who just happened to be fans. Kyoko could hear their notes of surprise and delight at seeing Sho out on the street in broad daylight. Murmurs of "Is that who I think it is?" and "Oh my God!" and "Sho! Can I have your autograph?" assaulted her ears.

Kyoko had just wanted to go to work.

"Kyoko!" Sho called out again. Kyoko gritted her teeth as she felt every fan's eyes turn to look at her; judging her and finding her wanting. Yes, she could see how she wouldn't quite measure up to Sho whilst wearing her bright pink work uniform.

Kyoko glowered at the thought that some _girl_ didn't find her worthy for Sho.

_He_ was the one not worthy for _her_!

Slowly she turned around, her hands clenched into fists. She could feel her grudge monsters settle about her shoulders like a mantle, the growing purple cloud swirling about her, making everyone within a ten foot radius take a step back in alarm.

Not Sho though.

He just walked up to her like she wasn't trying to burn him with her eyes.

"Finally!" He rolled his eyes, "I've been calling your name for ages. You mustn't have heard."

"Obviously." She growled between her gritted teeth.

He looked at her in slight alarm at the animalistic sound. "What's wrong with your voice?"

"Nothing." She said shortly, her fists trembling at her side. What she wouldn't do to just punch the idiot and then run.

Maybe then he would get it through his thick skull that she wanted nothing to do with him after what he had done to her!

_...but is that completely true...?_

Kyoko shook her head, trying to dislodge the small voice that was whispering in her ear. Yes, it was completely true. Sho had done nothing but make her life worse!

_...liar..._

A hand clamping itself on her shoulder brought her back from her thoughts and she startled when she focused on Sho's face, not three inches from her own.

"What are you doing?" she screeched in alarm, leaning back away from him.

"Kyoko, Kyoko, Kyoko." He leaned forward, a finger brushing under her chin, tilting her head up.

In the background Kyoko could hear dozens of fan girls and boys gasp.

What a pity. Witnesses meant that she couldn't hit the slimy git.

"What?"

Sho, seeing that his seduction technique wasn't working, pouted and leant back, his arms dropping to his sides. "Come now, is that the way to speak to your most _beloved –"_

That was all Kyoko heard because at that point she had turned around and walked off, leaving Sho standing there slightly bewildered and his fans crowding around him now that they had an opening and Kyoko's evil aura wasn't holding them back.

She could hear the shouted requests for his autograph thirty feet away.

---/---

Sho couldn't believe it! She had just _left_ him there!

In the middle of the street, surrounded by bloodthirsty fans!

He had been counting on her weird aura that surrounded her to keep his fans away whilst he told her something important. But _noooooo_...

He watched her get further and further away from him, keeping his eye on her form even as his fans pushed their way in front of him, their voices clamouring in his ears, deafening him.

"Kyoko!" He yelled out, not a little desperately. She didn't even raise a hand to acknowledge that she heard him! And he knew she had, it was in the way that her shoulders tensed just that little bit more and her steps sped up just slightly.

He watched as she rounded the corner out of sight, growling slightly to himself.

_What on earth did he have to do MORE?_

Despite wanting to just push away his crowd of admirers, his inner showman won out and instead, he pasted a smile on his face and started signing the bits of paper being thrust into his face.

---/---

Kyoko felt some of the tension in her shoulders disappear when the L.M.E. buildings came into view, slowing down slightly as she crossed the paved courtyard at the front of the main entrance.

She was almost there when she felt a hand catch her around the arm and spin her around. She growled under her breath when she recognised that the hand belonged to Sho, who looked like he had run as fast as he could to catch up to her.

Damn, she had thought that she had lost him.

Oh well, maybe he would leave her alone once he said whatever he had to say. It must have been important – he had been chasing and stalking her for a week now.

"Well?" She asked impatiently, "I don't want to spend a moment more in your presence than I have to."

"Kyoko," he panted, and then took another few seconds to compose himself, his head hanging down as he gulped in air.

Kyoko looked wistfully at the doors that were so close...but so far.

"Kyoko." He said after a moment, his voice much steadier. "I wanted to let you know that my agent has decided to take me on holiday, so I won't be seeing you this month."

Kyoko stared at him blankly.

_This_ was his big news?

He was rubbing her face in the fact that _he_ was going on _holiday_?!

She twisted out of his grip and took a step back, glaring at him. "Well," she sneered, "_thanks_ for that."

Sho looked a bit lost at the drastic change in attitude, his hand still reaching out towards her. "What? I...?"

Turning, she stormed over to the building. "Leave me alone, Sho!"

Sho just stood there and watched as she slammed open the front door and disappeared inside.

Ok. That was _not_ how he expected that to go.

---/---

It had been an early start for Ren and Yashiro. Ren had a photo shoot that was scheduled to last the whole day and, at that exact moment, they were on their way to the car that was waiting for them at the entrance to the building.

Yashiro walked next to Ren in silence. He had been reviewing everything lately.

And it was not looking good.

If something wasn't done soon all his plans could be thrown out the window.

"Ren..." He started, and then stopped. He had no idea how to word this.

Ren glanced curiously at him, but before he could open his mouth to ask just what his manager wanted he caught sight of something out of the front doors that made him freeze.

Yashiro, suddenly finding himself paces ahead of his charge, looked back at him – then followed his line of vision to see what had put that expression on Ren's face.

It wasn't hard to miss.

Sho was there, standing close to Kyoko. Too close. His hand on her arm. They seemed to be talking, and then Kyoko turned and walked towards the building. Sho still hand his hand outstretched, waving goodbye.

He must have walked Kyoko to work.

Yashiro glanced back at Ren's pale face. It seemed Ren had figured out what happened too.

They watched in silence as Kyoko walked by them, so far into her own world that she didn't even see Ren.

Yashiro sighed as Ren's eyes followed her until she disappeared up the employee stairs.

This was not good. It seemed his plans were failing at a faster rate than he had thought.

Quietly he followed Ren to the car, buckling himself in the passenger's side.

He didn't speak until they were well on their way to the site.

"You're going to lose her, you know?"

The only sign that Ren heard what he said was the tightening of his hands on the steering wheel.

"If you don't do anything, she's not even going to see you..."

"Yashiro." Ren barked out.

But he was too far gone. Ren needed to _see_. Needed to see what he was doing by denying himself, needed to see how much he was hurting himself by not taking this one chance.

"No." He said calmly. "Ren, why won't you understand? You can't just sit back and allow this to happen!"

"Yes. I can."

"No you can't! Sho's getting closer to her day by day! There are rumours about them on the internet! He _walked her to work this morning!"_

Ren was silent, his eyes never leaving the road in front of them.

Yashiro despaired.

"Is this some sort of noble _sacrifice_?" He almost hissed at the younger man.

"No."

"I've seen the way you look at her. _Hell_, even the President has seen it."

"I don't look at her _any_ –" Ren started to protest.

"Yes, you do!" Yashiro interrupted him, banging his fist on the dashboard in irritation.

Ren glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "Yashiro..." he warned.

Yashiro breathed heavily for a moment before reigning himself in. "I apologise." He said stiffly. "But you have to understand Ren. If you don't do anything soon, you _are_ going to lose her, and I don't think you'll be able to get her back."

There was silence in the car after that. Yashiro clearly not knowing what else to say. It wasn't until Ren drove up to the site and parked the car that he opened his mouth.

"Is it such a bad thing?" He asked quietly before getting out of the car.

Yashiro could only watch in shock as he left. "Oh Ren," he breathed into the empty car, "of course it's a bad thing. You _love_ her."

---/---

Lory had not been having a good day.

It was early afternoon and all day he had been waiting...waiting for it to get cold.

He glared at the sun that was dipping towards the horizon.

Oh yes, it got dark early – but it wasn't _cold_. The sky had been clear and the sun, whilst not as hot as summer, was still as warm as late autumn.

It was _December_ damn it! It was supposed to be cold! There was supposed to be snow!

How could he wear half the outfits he had planned if it wasn't cold?! He'd get heatstroke!

_This_ was why Lory was having a bad day.

He sighed and twirled around in his chair until he was facing the desk once again and morosely watched the wall of televisions he had had installed just yesterday. They were supposed to be showing scenes of snowy winter land! Not this!

Grabbing a remote off his desk he started to flip through the channels without paying that much attention.

Hold on a minute!

He skipped back a few channels and stared at the scene in front of him, his eyes sparkling in happiness.

Snow!

There was snow somewhere in the world!

Quickly, he clicked the volume control until he could hear what was being said.

"_And in Italy, the snowy season has already started with two feet of snow falling just last night. Snow sports enthusiasts are flocking to the Alps to get in early. It seems that it really will be a white Christmas after all."_

Italy! All his snow was in Italy!

This could only mean one thing...

"Mine-san!" He practically yelled into the intercom.

"Yes, Sir?"

"Arrange the jet! We're going to Italy!"

"Sir?!" Mine-san sounded startled.

"You heard me! Tomorrow!" The television was showing more pictures of white expanse, long unblemished ski runs glittering in the morning light.

"Sir, I don't think...isn't tomorrow too soon?" Mine-san pleaded with him. He ignored it.

"Nonsense!" He said happily. This time tomorrow and he would be surrounded by snow. Along with everyone else of course.

"Who else is going? Do they have passports?...Have you told them?"

Hmm, actually, that was a good point. Did they have passports? If they didn't he'd have to rush them through. Sometimes it paid being a prominent figure in the industry, stuff like this didn't hold you back when you needed things done fast.

"Of course I haven't told them! I've just come up with the idea! But you're right."

There came a sound of a sigh over the intercom, "I'm glad you see that, Sir."

"That's why we'll go the day _after_ tomorrow!"

"_What_?!"

"Please put a rush order through on any passports that are needed and make sure the housekeeping staff at my mansion know when we're arriving."

"But Sir! You haven't told me just who is –"

"And please get the jet ready! Thank you Mine-san!"

Before Mine-san could protest again Lory took his finger off the buzzer and twisted around in his chair again to face the dying light.

It was good to be President.

* * *

**Well there you go. And yes, I did have Sho act like that on purpose – all will be explained! (she said in a mysterious voice)**

**Tell me what you think, eh?**

**DS**


	2. Wednesday 2nd

**Yay! Day 2!**

**Ok – I have to admit...I'm kinda writing these on the day now. I'm **_**really**_** not leaving any room for circumstances.**

**Also, not all the chapters are going to be the same length, and not all of them are going to be posted as early as they were yesterday – mainly, it's my holidays and I want to catch up on sleep from the assignment hell that was last month.**

**ANYWAYS! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME WITH THE REVIEWS AND THE ALERTS AND THE FAVOURITES!**

**I honestly didn't expect to get **_**that many**_** reviews for the first chapter! I hope that this Advent lives up to your expectations!**

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**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the story is though.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

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Advent 09

December 2nd – 23 days to go

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Kanae watched as Kyoko scrubbed at the same bit of floor that she had been scrubbing for an hour.

Usually, this type of behaviour meant that her friend was thinking about something, or irritated, or angry, or fantasising...

Ok. There were a lot of things that that type of behaviour could mean. But Kanae would bet the bright pink uniform that she was wearing that it was more along the lines of angry or irritated. And yeah, the dark cloud of swirling miasma that was currently seeping its way down the hall was a clue.

Kanae had already stopped her own work quite some time ago and was watching her friend work, vaguely wondering if she should say something...or if there was even any floor left underneath Kyoko's scrubbing brush.

From where she was standing, leaning against her mop, Kanae could see workers and visitors turning into the corridor and then immediately turn back around again and leave as quickly as possible.

So far, Kanae had counted twenty four.

She couldn't decide whether to be amused at their reactions or just find them pathetic.

Eventually she decided on a strange mixture of both. However, when Kyoko started to mutter under her breath, she knew it was time to stop this..._whatever this was_...once and for all.

"Kyoko?" She asked hesitantly. Normally she would have just barged in, ignoring everyone's feelings, and come straight out with what she had to say.

But the mood Kyoko was in now, the mood she had been in since yesterday morning...

She really didn't want to tempt any Higher Powers.

Kyoko stopped scrubbing and turned her head jerkily until she could she Kanae out of the corner of her eye.

Kanae shivered. With Kyoko's hair shadowing her face like that and the flash of florescent lighting catching her eye...she looked like a demon.

An extremely pissed off demon.

Kanae went to speak again but she only managed to force a squeak past her tight throat muscles.

She frowned, irritated with herself that she would let something like the sight her friend was in terrify her. She had faced hoards of sugar-deprived children with nothing more than a pillow and her toothbrush! She could handle this.

"Kyoko." She said again, mentally congratulating herself when her voice came out much stronger, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Kyoko answered tersely.

Kanae eyed the hole in the floor that Kyoko had scrubbed. "Really." She said disbelievingly.

Kyoko looked from Kanae to hole in front of her and blushed a dull red. Embarrassment was quickly overtaken by anger. "Urgh. It's just..."

Kanae raised an eyebrow.

"It's Sho!" Kyoko shouted, standing suddenly and throwing down her scrubbing brush. Kanae watched as it skittered down the hallway.

"What's he done this time?"

"Everything! Nothing!" Kyoko gripped her hair, "Argh! I don't know any more."

"You're making perfect sense. Tell me more."

Kyoko shot her friend a glare at the sarcasm. Kanae was unperturbed. "He's being annoying lately, always following me around – like a stalker! And I had just gotten rid of the last one too. But now he's all like – '_Oooh, Kyoko. I saved you so you owe me now_' – and I don't!"

"He's trying to get you to pay him back because he saved you..?" Kanae asked hesitantly, unable to completely follow Kyoko's logic in this.

"Yes! No. I...maybe?"

Kanae looked at her blankly.

"It's just," Kyoko continued, "he's been acting really close, like I owe him something, then yesterday he stalks me and tells me that his manager is taking him away on holiday!"

"I'm not really following. What has the holiday got to do with any of this?"

"Don't you see?! He wanted to rub my nose in it that he _has_ a manager! That he's successful and I'm not! That he's going on holiday and I'm stuck here!"

Kanae looked at her friend. "You got all this from – '_I'm going on holiday._'?"

"Yes!" Kyoko nodded her head emphatically, "Don't you?"

"Um..."

Kanae was saved from having to answer that loaded question when an announcement blared over the speaker systems.

"_Could the members of Love Me please report to President Takarada's office immediately. I repeat, could the members of Love Me please report to President Takarada's office immediately. Thank you."_

Kanae and Kyoko stared at the speaker in slight shock.

"When did we get a P.A. system?" Kyoko asked.

"Who knows? I try not to think about these things too much."

---/---

Lory chuckled quietly to himself as he watched the last two members of his little gathering slip through the doors.

Finally! It was finally time!

Standing he brushed down his General uniform. He had chosen it specifically for today. True it wasn't in the festive spirit but for how he had arranged everything over the last two days he felt that the uniform was warranted.

And no, he didn't think it odd.

To their credit, his gathered attendees didn't even blink at his outfit. Not even when the sunlight caught his pips and practically blinded them. This was good!

He had trained them well.

He brought his riding crop out from behind his back and slammed it down on the desk, at the same time yelling "ATTEN-_HUT!"_

He felt only the briefest amount of pleasure at the sight of them jumping.

"Soldiers!" He called out passionately to the room, "Tomorrow all will be well!"

There was silence.

Lory waited until one of them spoke up to ask just what he was going on about.

He was not to be disappointed. After a few moments where it seemed that no one was going to speak up, Yashiro bravely stepped to the plate.

"What's happening tomorrow, Sir?"

"Why! I'm glad you asked that!"

"...You are?" Yashiro looked uncertain.

"Tomorrow," Lory continued, ignoring Yashiro, "We invade Italy!"

There was silence again, but this time it was disbelief.

"What?" Ren asked.

"Isn't that illegal?" Kanae said blankly.

Yashiro just looked at Lory like he had grown another head and put on a dress.

Lory brushed off their questions and weird looks.

"Um..." Kyoko said hesitantly. "Why?"

"Aha!" Lory shouted and whipped his riding crop up until it was pointing straight in Kyoko's face. She took an alarmed step back. "That's a very good question!" He continued. "We're doing this because they have taken my snow hostage!"

"That's it, he's crazy." Kanae muttered under her breath. Yashiro looked like he joined her in her thoughts on their President.

"H-hostage?" Kyoko swallowed nervously, taking another half step back from the riding crop.

"Oh no!" Maria breathed, "What will we do?"

Lory smiled at his granddaughter and scooped her up in his arms, sitting her on his hip. "That's why we're going to invade! To take back the snow!"

Maria's eyes brightened. "We're going to Italy?"

At this all the others in the room perked up.

"Yes, that's what I've been saying."

"Really? Italy?" Kyoko clasped her hands, her eyes sparkling. "I've never been out of the country before!"

Her joy was brought crashing down by Kanae, who crossed her arms over her chest. "How can we go? We don't have passports or the right clothing or money to pay for anything."

Lory waved off her protests. "I've already arranged everything. Mine-san has your passports and suitable clothing."

"What?" Kanae asked, a little bit disturbed. "Don't we need to fill in a form for that? With a picture and signature and –"

Lory just laughed at her worries, which in turn just made her more alarmed.

"I already have all that on file!" He said happily.

"What about Visa's? I know you need a visa to go to Europe."

Lory smirked. "I have friends in high places. Now, that's all I have to say. You are dismissed."

"Wait a minute!" Yashiro cut in, "When are we leaving?"

"Oh! How silly of me! We'll be leaving tomorrow!"

They stared at him.

"Bye now!" He said jubilantly, ushering them quickly through the door before dumping Maria into Ren's arms and slamming the door shut behind them.

His plans were unstoppable now!

---/---

The dumbfounded group stared at the closed door for a moment before looking at one another.

There was silence before Yashiro sighed and pushed his glasses further up his nose at the same time as flipping open his leather planner. "I guess I should cancel the appointments for the rest of the month then. I'm going to talk to Mine-san, see if she can give me any more information then – '_You're going to Italy tomorrow whether you like it or not. Don't worry about anything._'"

"I'll come with you." Ren said, tightening his hold on Maria who was sitting on his hip.

Kyoko and Kanae watched as they disappeared in the direction of Mine-san's desk.

"Well..." Kanae trailed off. "I wasn't expecting that."

"Moko! We're going to Italy tomorrow!"

Kanae looked at her friend, hiding her amusement. "Yeah, I heard."

"Do you know what this means?!" Kyoko asked. When Kanae shook her head in the negative she continued. "It means that Sho's not the only one going on holiday! He's going to be in for a surprise when he gets back and he learns that _I_ went on holiday too!"

"He'll be surprised alright."

Kyoko just laughed, her bad mood that had followed her around since yesterday completely disappearing as she skipped off down the corridor to get back to cleaning.

Kanae just rolled her eyes at her friend's antics.

She could only wonder at what tomorrow would bring.

* * *

**Ha ha!**

**Ok – mostly filler, but I'm just setting up everything at the moment. ****I also want to thank you all for the reviews again!**

**Freyasakura: Hope you feel better soon!**

**And to that one worried reviewer – you'll just have to read next years Advent to see what the Glitter is for!**

**ANYWAYS! Tell me what you think, eh? Even if you want to tell me that it's just filler...**

**DS**


	3. Thursday 3rd

**Every year I say 'Oh! I'll write the Advent chapters during the summer holidays!' and every year I end up writing the chapters on the days that they come out.**

**Where do those 7 months go, you ask? I don't know. I just don't know.**

**ANYWAYZ! I have a question for you all at the bottom of the fic – if you'd answer it I'd be most grateful :)**

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**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the story is though.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

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Advent 09

December 3rd – 22 days to go

* * *

Lory had wanted to leave as early as possible so that he could get to Italy faster, however, due to the time differences, and the difficulty that the Italian airport they were landing in was having thanks to another heavy snowfall, the departure time was pushed back to early evening.

It still meant that they would arrive in Italy relatively early in the day...but it didn't stop Lory from pouting the entire time until they were ready to leave.

Kyoko didn't care about any of this; she was just elated to finally be going on holiday. The President had given her and Kanae the day off to sort out what they would each be taking and all the extras they thought they should be taking. She had spent the entire night and most of the day packing and re-packing her clothes in a suitcase that Lory had sent to the restaurant where she worked and stayed.

As soon as the company car drew up outside she was out the front door like a shot. The driver looked a little alarmed but Kyoko was too busy waving goodbye to the couple who had started her on this road and who she had to thank for this opportunity.

If it wasn't for them she would never be here.

The entire ride to the L.M.E. building she was thrumming with excitement, barely able to keep still in her seat. The driver had become increasingly nervous and was noticeably twitching by the end of the journey. Kyoko thanked him happily, oblivious as to just how fast he seemed to drive off afterwards.

Standing outside the building, Kyoko closed her eyes and took a deep breath, enjoying the feeling of freedom. When she opened them again she caught sight of Kanae standing near Ren and Yashiro just inside the entrance. Picking up the handle of her suitcase she quickly made her way over to join them.

"Kyoko." Kanae nodded to her in greeting, "How are you? Did you get everything packed?"

"Yeah! I had some trouble deciding just what to bring. What about you?"

Kanae glanced at her bag warily, "My brothers and sisters all decided that they wanted to help..." she trailed off uncertainly, "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure just what they've added."

Kyoko joined Kanae staring at her bag in apprehension.

"I'm sure that...they wouldn't have..." Kyoko started to reassure her before having to stop. The problem was that she had met Kanae's family and knew what they were like. In the end she just asked, "We're they on sugar or not?"

"On."

Both the girls shivered.

---/---

Yashiro glanced over at Ren who was standing next to him and trying to look casual whilst surreptitiously looking over at Kyoko every few minutes.

Yashiro grinned. It seemed like Ren couldn't deny himself for very long. It might not even be that hard to come up with a plan to get them together!

After all, he had the whole month to work, _without_ interruptions.

Starting now!

"Ren." He said quietly, "Why don't you go over and talk to her?"

Ren looked away from Kyoko to Yashiro and raised an eyebrow, "Why would I do that?"

Yashiro grinned. "Oh. No reason!"

Ren furrowed his gaze but before he could open his mouth to ask just what Yashiro was planning, Yashiro had shoved him in the direction of Kyoko.

Ren stumbled, taken completely off guard.

"Tsuruga-san?" Kyoko asked, looking at him innocently, "Are you alright? Did you trip? You didn't hurt yourself did you?"

"I'm fine," he reassured her, then turned around and shot his the most evil glare he could muster at his manager who had the gall to smile and give him the thumbs up.

"Um...not to be rude...but was there something you needed, Tsuruga-san?"

"No, no..." Ren tried to say, but he lost track of whatever he was going to say afterwards when Kyoko smiled brightly at him.

"I know! You want me to carry your bags for you!"

"Um...no..."

"Don't worry, Tsuruga-san! I won't damage your case!" With that she strode over to Ren's case before hauling it back to where hers was standing. "You can trust me!"

Ren just nodded before making his way slowly over to where Yashiro was standing with his head in his hand.

"Do I _want_ to know how you managed to do that?" Yashiro asked despairingly.

---/---

Pretty soon Lory arrived in the entrance hall with Maria in tow, and ushered them all in to the limo that had just driven up outside.

Kyoko was excited, but even so she noticed that Maria was quieter than usual. Concerned, she stood by the small girl whilst they were waiting to be processed. Maria didn't say anything, just moved closer to Kyoko and held her hand, her grip increasing with every step they took closer to Lory's private jet.

---/---

Lory was watching his granddaughter in concern. He had brought up that they were flying by plane, offering to accompany Maria by boat if she didn't want to fly.

Maria had been adamant though, saying that she wasn't scared and that she would be fine.

Lory hadn't been sure but he didn't want to insult Maria by saying that he didn't think that she could handle it.

If his granddaughter said that she could do this then she could.

It wouldn't stop him from worrying or watching her closely in case she became upset. He had already briefed his cabin crew and had a professional medic on board just in case anything went wrong.

---/---

The private jet was extravagant, that was the only way Kyoko could describe it.

The area where they were ushered into was a huge, open space. Instead of rows of seats there were plush single chairs and a sofa along one of the sides, the flooring was carpeted and everything was done in browns and creams.

Kyoko had never seen anything that screamed money as much as this did and she had never felt so out of place.

Lory, Ren and Yashiro seemed completely at home in the environment.

Maria, whilst looking nervous, wasn't completely blown away by what she was seeing which told Kyoko that she was used to this sort of thing.

Even Kanae seemed at home, quickly sitting down in one of the chairs and relaxing completely.

Kyoko stood stiffly in the doorway for a moment, smiling wanly at the stewardess who motioned for her to take a seat. She headed over to the chair next to Kanae but stopped short when Yashiro cut her off.

"You don't mind do you Kyoko? It's just, I have a bad back. Look! The seat next to Ren is free! I'm sure he won't mind!"

Kyoko smiled, "That's fine, Yashiro-san." She turned and saw the glare Ren was shooting at them and quickly revised her opinion.

Nervously she made her way over to where Ren was buckled into the sofa.

"You don't mind, do you Tsuruga-san?"

Ren smiled politely at her, "Of course not Kyoko-chan."

Kyoko's eyes widened at the sight of the smile and she fought down a shiver. That was one of his '_I'm really, REALLY angry right now_' smiles. She sat stiffly next to him and was so caught up in what he could be angry about and whether or not he was angry at her she completely missed take-off.

A little disappointed that she had missed her first take-off in a plane, she nevertheless amused herself with looking out the window and trying not to attract Ren's attention lest he turn that polite smile on her again.

---/---

It was halfway through the flight that Maria's nerves gave out.

The stewardess had dimmed the lights two hours ago and Yashiro and Kanae had already fallen asleep in their comfy chairs.

Ren hadn't said a word in the four hours that they had been up in the air so Kyoko had relaxed a little in her seat and was leaning back, daydreaming of what she would do in Italy when they arrived.

She was broken out of her thoughts at the sound of a quiet sob. Opening her eyes she looked around in concern and spotted Maria curled tightly into a ball in her seat, silently crying.

"Maria-chan?" She called out quietly, trying not to disturb Yashiro and Kanae.

Ren turned to look at the sound of her voice and as soon as Maria saw that they were both looking at her she let out a louder sob and scrambled out of her chair and over to them, climbing into Ren's lap and burying her tear-stained face into his chest.

Kyoko looked on in worry when Maria didn't stop crying, Ren murmuring quietly into her ear and gently rocking her.

Kyoko, feeling helpless, moved closer to them and started to stroke her hair, Maria's hitching sobs calming down a little at the action.

Both Ren and Kyoko kept comforting Maria until she had fallen into an exhausted sleep. It was only then that Kyoko worked up the courage to question what had just happened.

"What was wrong?"

Ren stayed silent for a few moments. Kyoko was just beginning to think that he wouldn't answer her when he started to speak.

"Maria...doesn't like flying."

"Why?" Kyoko asked, confused.

"It has to do with her Mother." Ren said shortly.

Kyoko was horrified and ashamed. How had she forgotten that?! Maria must have been completely distressed for hours and she hadn't even noticed!

"Then why did the President make her fly?! Isn't that cruel?"

Ren turned to look at her, his expression soft as he cradled the small girl to his chest, comforting her in her sleep. "My guess is that he offered another way for Maria, but she decided that she wanted to fly. She doesn't really look like it but she's _very_ stubborn, and once she decides to do something there's no force that could possibly make her change her mind.

"She knew what she it meant but she came anyway. I guess she wanted to prove that she could and that she wasn't held back by what happened.

"Because of this, it's sometimes easy to forget that she's young."

Kyoko stared at Ren. Just now, her heart had skipped a beat at the look on his face.

She turned her attention back to Maria and went to remove her hand from her hair so that she could sleep in peace. She was startled slightly when Maria reached out in her sleep and grabbed her hand, but she wasn't cruel enough to deny the child any comfort, even when it meant that she was half leaning on Ren to stay comfortable at the angle she was in.

---/---

Kyoko fell asleep soon after, leaving Ren the only one awake in the cabin.

Lory had checked in once an hour later and had smiled softly – if a little sadly – when he had seen them sitting together before going back into the cockpit, leaving Ren alone with his thoughts.

He was tired, his biological clock telling him that it was getting close to two in the morning in Japan but he couldn't sleep.

Kyoko was sleeping, her head on his shoulder and her hand still holding Maria's, and Ren couldn't puzzle out just what he was feeling. His skin was hot at the points of contact between Kyoko and himself but instead of feeling uneasy he was filled with a sense of contentment.

Was this what having a family felt like? This sense of peace?

The idea that nothing could harm you?

He didn't know, and he wasn't sure that he was ready to answer that question.

Instead he closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling.

The thoughts in his head made sleep a long time in coming.

---/---

When the plane finally touched down in Turin airport it was midday. However, to the weary travellers it was more like very early morning.

The only one that didn't seem to be that adversely affected was Ren, but even he was looking tired standing there with Maria asleep in his arms.

Lory, instead of becoming over-exuberant at the sight of all the snow, just cajoled them all into the luxury bus that he had hired to drive them halfway up the mountain to his mansion.

Kyoko was exhausted, but that didn't stop the feeling of wonder at the view out of the window. She tried to look at everything, even as her eyes kept drooping shut.

The going was slow as the road were icy, so when they arrived at the mansion two hours later it was all they could do to just stumble into the rooms they were directed to by the temporary staff, change and fall into a deep sleep.

After all, there was always tomorrow.

* * *

**Did you like the moment?**

**QUESTION TIME!**

**Apart from Skip Beat – what other fandoms do you like to read in?**

**For example – a sample of my fandoms would be Alex Rider, Harry Potter, Supernatural xovers, Merlin, Bleach, Naruto, Star Trek: 2009, Hellsing and FFVII.**

**And no – I don't read Skip Beat fanfic (unless a RL friend writes it) :P**

**DS**


	4. Friday 4th

**Thanks to all who answered my question last chapter! Interesting stuff.**

**This is going to be a short chapter – mainly 'cos I'm tired and it's late.**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the story is though.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 4th – 21 days to go

* * *

The next morning Kyoko woke bright and early to the sun shining in her bedroom window.

Getting out of bed she stretched, working out all the kinks an 8 hour flight then a two hour bus ride had given her. Her mouth dropped open when she finally took the time to look at her room; it was elegant, pale blue with carved mahogany furniture. It screamed _money_ and Kyoko felt the smallest hint of shame at the way she had just dumped her case in the middle of the floor the night before.

To make up for it, and to appease herself, she made the bed as neatly as possible and got ready.

However, as soon as she saw the en-suite bathroom she lost herself again, spending minutes admiring the sunken marble tub and golden fixtures.

By the time Kyoko had collected herself an hour had passed and she found herself running down to the ground level to try to find the rest of the group. There was a moment of panic when she realised that she didn't actually know her way around the building but the smell of freshly cooked food quickly led her to a large dining room. A massive table stood squarely in the middle of the room, laden with a wide variety of food that made her mouth water.

She felt a little bit embarrassed that everyone else seemed to have already started on their meal so she quickly joined them, filling her plate with some fruit.

After they had eaten their fill, Lory smiled at them.

"So," He started, "welcome to my holiday home. I hope you liked the bedrooms that were picked out for you."

Kyoko nodded, "Thank you for inviting me, Sir." She said, her manners coming to the forefront. She had been trained to be polite in settings like this.

Lory waved off her thanks, "No need to thank me, Kyoko-chan!"

Beside her, Kanae blanched. "Oh, I do _not_ like where this is going..." she murmured under her breath.

"Sir?" Kyoko asked, oblivious to Kanae's mutterings.

"Ren-kun, you've been working too hard. This is a holiday for you. That goes for you as well, Yashiro-san."

Yashiro looked slightly surprised, but nodded gratefully at Lory's words.

"While it is a holiday," Lory continued, "I would be grateful if you could watch over Maria-chan every now and then."

"Of course, Takarada-san." Yashiro said, "It would be my honour."

Lory nodded with a smile before turning to face Kyoko and Kanae. "And you two!"

Kyoko smiled.

"You two will be working here – cleaning and cooking."

The smile dropped from Kyoko's face. "W-what?" She asked.

"It won't be every day. But the temporary staff doesn't come in all the time and as we're staying for the whole month I need someone to take their places when they aren't here.

"Now, Ren, Yashiro, why don't you go and explore? Kyoko and Kanae, you'll find the cleaning supplies in the closet on the left in the third corridor."

---/---

After breakfast had ended, Ren quickly returned to his room and changed into the ski outfit that he had discovered in his closet. He wanted to get on the slopes as quickly as possible without being cornered by Yashiro.

He hadn't missed the glances Yashiro had sent him at breakfast.

Dressed and ready, Ren began sneaking out of the mansion.

He breathed a sigh of relief when the front doors finally came into sight and relaxed, straightening up.

It was to be his biggest mistake.

A hand caught him on the shoulder and spun him into the wall. Surprised, Ren could only blink down at his slightly shorter manager.

His slightly shorter manager who was now pinning him to the wall.

"Yashiro." Ren tried to imbue his voice with disapproval. "Just _what_ do you think you are doing?"

Yashiro glared at him and Ren found himself unable to speak, his heart pounding in his ribcage. "You." He ground out.

Ren's eyes widened.

"And where do you think you're going?" Yashiro asked in a low voice.

"Um...just out!" Ren said nervously, "I wanted to check out the slopes."

"But now's the perfect opportunity!"

Ren paused, "For...what?" he asked hesitantly.

"To get closer to Kyoko, of course!" Yashiro rolled his eyes, like Ren was an idiot for asking.

Ren blanked his face and he tried to push Yashiro away.

Try being the operative word. For being smaller, Yashiro was certainly stronger than he looked.

"Kyoko's going to be in all day." Yashiro said, seemingly oblivious to the way Ren was now struggling to escape. "I don't understand why you're wasting this chance to go skiing."

"There is no _chance_!"

The venom in Ren's voice mad Yashiro take a step back and drop his hands to his sides. "Of...of course there's a chance, Ren." He said "You just have to take it so you don't lose her."

"Lose her?" Ren tugged his jacket back into place and strode towards the door, Yashiro following behind. "You forget that I never _had_ her in the first place!

How could I possibly _lose _her?"

"But you _could_ have her." Yashiro said timidly, watching as Ren picked out a pair of Ski's from the storage room to the side of the front door. "I don't understand why you're denying yourself this."

Ren just looked at him, one hand on the door knob, his face unreadable to Yashiro. "It's better this way." He said quietly, before walking out and closing the door behind him, leaving Yashiro standing in the entrance hall alone.

"Oh, Ren." Yashiro whispered, "You'll regret this. I just don't want to see you hurt."

---/---

Kyoko and Kanae were cleaning.

At least, that was they were supposed to be doing. Wiping a cloth across a clean table whilst examining weird objects couldn't _really_ be classified as cleaning.

"What is this supposed to _be_?" Kanae asked.

Kyoko just shrugged, "A tube?"

"Then what's this part for?" Kanae pointed to one of the odd protruding stubs.

"Maybe...it's to cause maximum damage? When you throw it at someone?"

"Are you saying it's some sort of torture device?"

"Yeah. Or an instrument."

Kanae gave the object in her hand a wary look. "Not much difference, is there?"

Kyoko didn't answer, her attention taken by a large object covered by a grey dust sheet. "I wonder what's under here?"

Kanae looked up, her eyes widening, "Wait!" she called out, "Don't!"

But it was too late. Kyoko whipped away the sheet causing massive billows of dust to settle throughout the whole room.

Kyoko slowly turned to face Kanae who was grinding her teeth together. "Oops?" she offered.

"Great. Now we really _do _have to clean this room."

Kyoko pouted, "I can't believe that the President only brought us here to work as staff! I thought that we were actually going to get a holiday."

Kanae shrugged and set to work. "To be honest, I'm not that surprised. I always thought there'd be a catch."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You better start cleaning, this room's dirtier now than it was before we came in."

There were a few moments of silence as the two girls set to work before Kyoko spoke up.

"Hey, did you know that the sheet is actually _white_?"

* * *

**Lol – did anyone else see the Ren/Yashiro moment? **

**Review?**

**DS**


	5. Saturday 5th

**So – another short chapter, but tomorrows will be longer. I can guarantee it :P**

**And about yesterday and the Ren/Yashiro moment that seemed to be in there...it must really annoy you that I'm still not going to tell you the pairing!**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the story is though.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 5th – 20 days to go

* * *

Breakfast was a quiet affair.

Kyoko eyed Ren and Yashiro discreetly, despite the silence they seemed sullen, not even looking at one another. For all she could figure out they had had a fight.

No matter how ridiculous that sounded.

Every so often Yashiro would look up from his plate and turn his attention on Ren, who would tense and glare at his plate.

Kyoko wondered just what had happened. They had seemed fine yesterday morning and she had missed them at dinner in the evening, so it must have happened just after she and Kanae had left them.

Glancing between them, she was disheartened with the downhearted expression on Yashiro's face, and resolved to make them get past any argument that they had had.

_After all_, she reasoned with herself, _their friendship shouldn't be thrown away over something so small._

And it was hurting the both of them, she could see that plainly.

She looked away and caught Maria's gaze. The young girl had also seen the discord between Ren and Yashiro. Right then a silent communication took place as both girls swore to work together to right this.

They were interrupted as Lory taped on his glass with a knife. He smiled blindingly at them when they all turned their attention to him, his teeth sparkling in the light. A supposed picture of innocence.

Kyoko suppressed a shiver.

"Kyoko-chan, Kanae-chan," he started, "I would like to thank you for doing such a good job on the rooms yesterday."

Kyoko and Kanae nodded, wondering where this was going. Kyoko had to repress the feeling of hope that they might be getting a day off.

"I have a different job for you today though."

Kyoko sighed quietly before firming her resolve and focusing on what the Lory was saying, missing the subtle look Ren shot at her.

She might not be getting a holiday anytime soon but she _was_ in a different country and she was grateful for the opportunity for that.

"The cooking staff has informed me that we are running out of certain things and need to restock." He pulled out a piece of paper and a wad of notes and pushed it towards them. "This is the list of everything that we need for the next few days. The money should cover the expenses."

Kanae reached out and took the list whilst pocketing the money. She briefly scanned over it once before handing it to Kyoko to look over.

"To get to the shops you follow the road to the bottom of the mountain, it only takes an hour to walk and it's quicker than driving. The chef need the things on that list before the meal tonight so if you could get back at around lunchtime please."

Kyoko and Kanae nodded before standing up, going to get ready to leave.

"Oh!" Lory interrupted them, "I almost forgot! I have skiing jackets for you to wear so you don't freeze on the way."

He reached under the table and with a happy flourish presented the two girls with their brand new coats.

The occupants at the table could only stare at the bright pink jackets with the Love Me badge printed on the back.

"Damn." Kanae murmured under her breath. "I thought we had escaped."

Kyoko silently agreed with her.

---/---

"I'm going to kill him." Kanae muttered darkly.

Kyoko muffled a chuckle. It wouldn't do to attract the attention of Kanae's foul mood seeing as they were the only two people on the road, halfway down the mountain.

Kanae heard her though and Kyoko just grinned at the scowl. "It's not that bad."

"They're bright _pink_. It's like our uniforms condensed into a jacket!"

"Well..." Kyoko mused, "We _are_ working."

"You're not helping. Though I suppose it's better than just having to wear only the jumpsuits."

"That's the spirit!" Kyoko grinned, "And look at it this way, if one of us slips they'll be able to spot us for miles!"

Kanae just grumbled under her breath.

---/---

Of course, both of them were grumbling under their breath when they walked through the village.

The residents were staring at them with wide eyes. Sure, they were used to people wearing odd coloured ski clothes, but that blindingly pink colour hadn't been seen since the early ninety's and the badge adorning the back was causing whispers to spread from those who could understand what it said.

There were quite a few people hiding laughs behind their hands.

"I really am going to kill him for making us wear this." Kanae informed Kyoko gravely.

Kyoko nodded in agreement. "I'm with you on that, but I think we should get the shopping done first. I want to be able to have a nice meal afterwards."

"True."

They trudged into the shop and loaded up the basket with all the things on the list.

There was quite a lot and by the end they were struggling.

"God. I didn't realise that we needed so much stuff!" Kanae said, "It's like shopping for my family!"

"Let's just get this and get out of here, I don't think my arms can stand lugging this basket around for much longer."

Kanae nodded and between them they dragged the basket through the aisle and up to the cashier.

---/---

Loaded up with shopping bags, they stumbled outside.

They were so caught up in relief that this trip was almost over that they didn't notice that a crowd had gathered just down the road.

They did notice it, however, when people started to rush past them to get a better view.

"I wonder what's going on?" Kanae said.

Kyoko just shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, probably something exciting by the way everyone's reacting."

They started to make their way towards the group.

"I can't believe he's here!" one girl said to her friend as they passed the two Love Me members.

"I know!" the friend replied, "But he's taking a break here before he starts his world tour!"

"I can't believe we're going to meet him!"

"I know! How many people can say that they've met Sho Fuwa?"

Kyoko froze.

Hang on, that couldn't be right. She must have misheard.

They couldn't possibly have said who she thought they had said.

She glanced over to Kanae who was looking back at her with wide eyes, meaning only one thing.

"Crap." Kyoko swore.

As one they turned back to look at the large crowd, which, right at that moment parted to reveal the tall figure of Sho wearing a black ski outfit.

Kyoko and Sho stared at each other for a moment before the crowd surged again and Sho disappeared from view.

Kyoko stood dumbfounded.

Damn it! This was supposed to be _her_ holiday! Why the hell was Sho here of all places?!

"Kyoko!" Kanae hissed, grabbing onto her arm, "Come on! Before that crowd lets him go!" She dragged the shocked form of her friend behind one of the buildings.

"What's he _doing_ here?!" Kyoko asked, panic seeping into her voice.

Kanae shrugged, peering out around the corner. "He's probably just passing through."

"Oh, God." Kyoko sank to the ground. "He saw me!"

Kanae looked at her friend sympathetically, "Maybe he looked in your general direction but didn't actually see you?"

"In this jacket? Not likely."

Kanae sighed, "Cheer up, he'll probably be gone tomorrow. And at least you know it can't get any worse than this."

Kyoko nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Now," Kanae said. "We have a bigger problem."

Kyoko looked at her friend questioningly.

"How are we going to get all these shopping bags back up the mountain before lunchtime."

Both the girls looked at each other then looked at the mountain before groaning loudly.

* * *

**Ahaha! You know what I just realised! I was taking the micky out of Kyoko and Kanae having to wear fluorescent pink ski jackets when I remembered that my first ski outfit was FLUORESCENT PINK! With lime green things on the side.**

**You really couldn't miss me! XD**

**Ah...the good old days. Ninety's ski wear was awesome!**

**QUESTION TIME!**

**Is everyone completely fanatical about pairings? Or will you read whatever pairing if the story is good enough? Have you ever given up halfway through a story just because you didn't like one of the pairings?**

**(And no...this has nothing to do with this story – I'm just curious! Honest!)**

**DS**


	6. Sunday 6th

**I have a miiiiiiiiiiiigraine D:**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the story is though.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 6th – 19 days to go

* * *

"I can't believe this!" Kanae groused, kicking the snow.

"It's not that bad."

Kanae just stared at Kyoko disbelievingly.

"Ok," Kyoko amended, "maybe it's a little bad."

"A little?" Kanae said, "A little?! We were just here yesterday!" She spread her arms to encompass the village. "And on top of that," she continued, working herself up into a rant, "we spent two hours yesterday dragging those shopping bags back up the mountain!"

"I know," Kyoko nodded.

"We got everything on the list!"

"I know that too."

"Why are we back here then?!"

Kyoko was silent. When Kanae whirled around to glare at her she just shrugged. "Yeah, I got nothing."

Kanae let out a huff of annoyance and pouted, crossing her arms across her chest. "I don't like it."

Kyoko patted her on the shoulder. "It's not that bad." Then she quickly moved in case Kanae got it into her mind to hit her in annoyance.

"So," Kyoko continued. "What does he want us to buy this time?"

Kanae pulled out the list, took one look at it and stifled a scream.

"Well?" Kyoko asked.

"Exactly the same as yesterday!"

Kyoko groaned. "Ok, we should get going then."

They took two steps before they realised that they had just pushed their way through a crowd surrounding two people fighting. Everyone turned to look at the two girls wearing bright pink.

"Sorry!" Kyoko said "Didn't mean to interrupt!"

"Well, well...look who we have here."

Kyoko's head shot up, horror plastered across her face.

"R-reino..." she stuttered.

The silver haired man sauntered over to her, leaning down until his face was mere inches away from her own. "I never thought I'd see you again..." he raked his gaze across her, "...so soon."

Kyoko swallowed and tried to back up, but her body wasn't listening to her. She started to tremble as he traced her jaw with his fingernail.

Beside her, Kanae stared in shock at what was happening. She couldn't comprehend just what was going on.

"I think," Reino leaned closer until he was whispering in Kyoko's ear, "that maybe we should pick up where we left off...hmmm?"

Kyoko trembled as she felt his breath caress her ear. She wanted to run, to scream, to push him away...but it was just like last time.

She was powerless and there was no one there to stop it.

"Hey!"

Kyoko blinked as Reino was jerked away. The next thing she knew was two strong arms wrapped around her, holding her close to a solid chest. "Back off!"

"Fuwa." Reino looked unimpressed. "Taking the role of the white knight again?" He looked at Sho who was dressed in his black ski outfit, "Or maybe not." He smirked.

"Careful Reino." Sho ground out past his clenched teeth, "Or _I'll_ pick up where _we_ left off."

Reino straightened at the threat. "Fine." He spat, before leering at Kyoko, "I'll see _you_ later."

"She's _mine_." Sho hissed, "If you lay even _one_ hand on her..."

Reino growled before turning abruptly and pushing his way through the crowd.

Kyoko still felt dazed, until Sho's last comment pierced through the haze. She was _his_? She pushed away from him. "_What_?" she hissed, "I'm not _yours_!"

"Ah, Kyoko. It wasn't what it sounded like!"

"Oh _really_. And what is it then, you jerk!"

"It was the only way to make him leave!"

"And _why_," Kyoko prodded him in the chest, "would the only way to make him leave be if he believed I was _yours_?"

"Er..." Sho looked a little lost for what to say to that. In the end he just shrugged. "I don't...know?"

"You. Are. A jerk." Kyoko snarled at him. "What have you been telling people about me?!"

Sho held up his hands in appeasement. "Nothing! I haven't said anything to anyone! I swear!"

"Yeah right."

"Um...guy's?" Kanae broke through their argument, "We're attracting attention..."

Kyoko and Sho turned to look at the crowd that was staring at them, listening avidly. Even though none of the villagers understood what they were saying.

The television crews did though.

"Sho!" Kyoko rounded on him, "You did that on purpose didn't you?! Set that up so that you'd get more popularity! I bet you've been working with that Beagle the entire time!"

"I haven't!" Sho denied, looking a little hurt that she would accuse him of something like that, "I swear I don't know why the television crews are here! They just turned up!"

Kyoko didn't deign to answer that, instead she turned, grabbed Kanae's hand and started to drag her to the shops.

"Kyoko!" Sho trotted after her like a kicked puppy, "I swear I had nothing to do with it! I just wanted to protect you from him."

Kyoko shot a glare at him. Kanae winced and shrugged when Sho looked at her. Thankfully the television crews hadn't followed them, seemingly having shot all the footage that they wanted.

The mismatched trio continued walking, Kyoko ignoring all effort put forward by Sho to get her to talk. It wasn't until they had finished with the second shop in two days that Sho said something that made Kyoko whirl around.

"So...are you skiing?"

Kyoko scoffed. "Skiing? Of course I'm skiing! Why else would I be here if it wasn't to have a holiday?"

Sho shrugged. "It's just...you're wearing jackets that look an _awful_ lot like your uniform..."

"It's so we don't get lost in the snow." Kyoko ground out.

Sho nodded, as if that made all the sense in the world. "I'm just here for a break before my tour. Shoko wants me to learn. I'm starting tomorrow; maybe we'll be in the same class?"

"Maybe you'll be in _my_ class, you mean."

"Ah...yeah." Sho stood awkwardly for a moment, "Um...I've gotta..." he made a vague hand gesture, "gotta go."

Kyoko nodded. "I'll see you on the slopes."

He nodded, a small smile on his face before walking away from them.

Kanae watched him leave then turned to Kyoko with wide eyes. "Kyoko," she hissed, "what have you gotten us _into_?! We're not on holiday!"

Kyoko's facade cracked and she fell to her knees, a horrified expression on her face. "What have I done?!" she wailed.

"Come on," Kanae sighed, "you'll just have to tell the President and hope he understands." Reaching down she dragged Kyoko onto her feet. "Come on, Kyoko." She grunted, "I'm not carrying you and the damn shopping back up the mountain."

---/---

Yashiro had had enough.

That was why he was currently dragging Ren through the hall of the mansion to one of the many studies.

"Go on," he huffed before shoving Ren though the door.

"Ah Ren!" Lory said pleasantly, "How can I help you?"

Ren looked back at his manager who had firmly planted himself in front of the only exit with his arms crossed over his chest. He sighed.

"_I_ was wondering," he started, "If Kyoko-chan and Kanae-chan could have a few days off."

Lory looked between Ren and Yashiro, his smile never dimming. "Of course! Was that it?"

Ren turned and raised an eyebrow at Yashiro.

Yashiro sighed and moved out of the way, wincing only slightly when Ren slammed the door on the way out.

"Was that worth it?" Lory asked, chuckling slightly.

"It will be," Yashiro murmured, "it will be."

* * *

**I think I abused my italicising rights in this chapter.**

**DS**


	7. Monday 7th

**Just wanted to let you know that this Advent isn't like the last two years, if it feels like it's filler to you then it probably is – mainly because my plan for this year was 'No idea what to do – just NO ANGST – Italy? Ski? If at all possible then get these two characters to hook up. If not get those two characters to hook up. If impossible screw it and say that you meant it to be like that.'**

**...maybe I shouldn't have told you the last part...**

**ANYWAY! The main focus of this is humour, the romance isn't central. At all. And with that goes all the angsty does s/he doesn't s/he...cos I cannot bring myself to write something depressing. I just finished a month of Hell and I'm not going back there!**

**So yeah, there won't be a plotline until...like...day 10 or something...and even then...so if that bores you then I don't mind if you don't want to read anymore because I set out to amuse people. If anyone finds this story amusing then I'll feel like I've done something right.**

**And this fiendishly long author's note wasn't to hit out at anyone – I just thought I should explain what my reasoning's were and why most of it seems like filler after I received a review. I put it off for six days...¬¬**

**Blonde-Existentialist: Outdoor hot tubs, you say! You, Sir, have read my mind (If you can believe that!) Ha ha :P**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the story is though.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 7th – 18 days to go

* * *

They were at breakfast; Kyoko had been dreading this moment for most of the night and had tried to put it off for as long as possible. It felt like she was taking advantage of Lory's hospitality.

After all, she was supposed to be here for work.

She glanced at Lory for the fifth time in ten minutes then caught Kanae's glare and looked back down at her plate.

How hard was it to ask just one simple question? To explain to the man what had happened and hoped he understood?

She had a good chance; Lory always seemed to understand any kind of predicament that she got into, but still...

She sighed almost silently, working up her courage. Straightening her spine she looked towards Lory again and opened her mouth to speak...

...and was immediately interrupted.

"Girls," Lory began, showing no signs of knowingly interrupting Kyoko, "I have decided that to just have you working here is a waste of an opportunity."

Both the girls blinked.

"So that's why," he continued, "I've booked you in for skiing lessons! No need to thank me."

Kanae and Kyoko stared at him.

_Well_, Kyoko thought, _that takes care of asking..._

"You may want to hurry though," he mused, looking at his wristwatch, "the classes start in half an hour at the bottom of the mountain. Ren? Could you point out the way?"

"Of course."

Kanae and Kyoko looked at each other for a moment as Lory's words sunk in, stood abruptly, hastily bowing their thanks and apologies and bolting out the room to get ready and somehow find a way to cut an hour long journey down to thirty minutes or less.

Lory just chuckled at their antics. "Ah, to be young and full of energy."

"It is certainly something that one misses, don't you agree Ren?" Yashiro asked.

"I wouldn't know." Ren said shortly, ignoring the way Yashiro winced.

Maria's eyes flicked between them as she took another mouthful of food. _Something_ would need to be done soon.

---/---

"Oh God, oh God, oh God..." Kanae murmured under her breath as she skidded another ten feet, narrowly missing a tree; her grip slipping on the skis and poles in her grasp.

"Come on! It's just through that gap!" Kyoko called out from her place twenty feet in front, her own equipment slung over her shoulder as she carefully took another few steps.

"I don't know how you managed to talk me into this!"

"It's a short-cut. It cuts off thirty minutes if we just go straight instead of following the road. I saw it on the map Ren showed us of the place."

"Yeah well," Kanae let out a small scream as the ground suddenly disappeared from under her and she fell three feet, "at least the road won't kill us!"

"Nothing's going to kill us...oh. Damn."

Kanae struggled over to where Kyoko was standing on a ledge, looking down to the ground ten feet below them.

"Now what?" Kanae asked moodily.

Kyoko thought for a second then turned slowly to face Kanae, "Well...there is a snow bank..."

---/---

"I hate you. I hate you. I hate you." Kanae whispered, trying to get the snow that was melting from inside her jacket.

Kyoko was looking much the same, shifting uncomfortably from not only the snow that had made its way beneath her clothes from the jump, but also from the snow Kanae had shoved down the back of her jacket for being pushed.

"But the short-cut worked. Look," Kyoko pointed to a figure standing next to a pole with a red flag on it. "That's the instructor there. We're right on time. Maybe we should use that route more often?"

"Try it," Kanae hissed, "and I will fill your bed with snow."

Kyoko shivered, "Just kidding!"

"Kyoko!"

Kyoko's head shot around so fast that Kanae thought she might have given herself whiplash.

"Oh no," Kyoko groaned quietly.

Kanae followed her line of sight to find that the figure that they had thought was the instructor was actually Sho. Kyoko had stopped walking; stubbornly digging her heals into the ground. Kanae gave her a sharp shove from behind.

"I didn't let you drag me down the mountain for you to change your mind now." She hissed in Kyoko's ear. "Just ignore him if you really hate him that much."

"The instructor hasn't shown up yet," he said smiling, "so we should just wait here until he does show."

Kanae returned his smile weakly, to his credit; he honestly did seem to be excited about this.

"Well, well, well! What's this I spy?"

"Reino." Sho growled, "What are you doing here? Come back for more?"

Reino laughed. Completely decked out in white and with his silver hair, Kanae thought that he looked like some sort of snow deity...or a homicidal snowman. She couldn't quite made up her mind.

"I think not, Fuwa." Reino smiled, showing just a few more teeth than necessary. "I _know_ how to ski."

Sho visibly ground his teeth together. "Well _I _know how to ski too!"

Reino raised his eyebrow and looked pointedly at the flag.

"I'm teaching them."

"Oh _really_." Reino smirked, gliding closer until he was mere inches away from Sho's face. "Liar."

Sho scowled. "No I'm not, I'm..." he fished around for an excuse, "working on becoming an instructor, that's all."

Reino's lips quirked and he pushed himself backwards. "Then I must..._commend_...you. I guess I'll see you on the slopes soon then." He smirked one last time before turning and skiing away in the direction of the ski lifts.

Sho noisily exhaled, "God, that jerk makes me so _angry_..." he turned around and faltered when he saw the look of fury on Kyoko's face. "Er...?"

"So you're the one _teaching us now_?"

Sho held up his hands, panic flashing in his eyes, "It was just to make him go away!"

Kanae sighed, "Kyoko, leave him alone. Men are idiots."

"Kyoko-chan. Is Fuwa bothering you?"

"Bollocks," Sho grumbled under his breath, "another person I can't stand."

Kanae smothered a smile and turned to face Ren who had skied over to their small group sometime during the confrontation.

"Tsuruga-san!" Kyoko smiled brightly as Sho scowled. "No, no. He can't bother me anymore."

"Indeed." Ren turned and shot a venomous _look_ at Sho who bristled. "And what did I hear about Sho _teaching_ you?"

Kyoko turned and glared at Sho who shifted uncomfortably under both the looks.

"Well then," Ren smiled, "maybe tomorrow you wouldn't mind coming out with me on some easy runs?"

"Well, I..." Sho started nervously, then caught himself, his spine straightening. "Yeah then. We'll see you tomorrow."

Ren's smile increased in politeness. "Wonderful."

Kanae swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. Just what was she getting into here?

---/---

The lessons took up the rest of the day. To Kyoko and Sho's chagrin Kanae turned out to be a complete natural at everything the instructor taught them. This was why she was in an infinitely cheerful mood that evening as they walked back up the mountain from the baby slopes where their lessons had taken place, Kyoko muttering at her side.

"Oh, cheer up."

Kyoko pouted a little more and adjusted her grip on her skis and poles.

"It's not the end of the world," Kanae smiled.

"It's hopeless!" Kyoko wailed, "Even _Sho_ is better than me!"

"So you don't get skiing on your first try." Kanae shrugged. "That's what practise is for. Besides, I've never known you to just give up after one go."

Kyoko paused, thinking that statement over, "That's true..." she grinned suddenly. "Ok, tomorrow I'm going to practise until I bleed! I won't give up until I'm the best skier out there!"

Kanae shook her head fondly as Kyoko rushed past her, filled with new enthusiasm. "Whatever floats your boat."

* * *

**Like someone who has been skiing has never taken a short-cut down the mountain as almost brained themselves on a tree...**

**Granted, the ten foot fall was onto thorn bushes and not a snowdrift...and I didn't jump per say - more like couldn't stop in time...but I decided that fiction did not have to be as cruel as reality! :D**

**I'll say it again – this story is light-hearted and mostly **_**without**_** plot at all. If this isn't your cup of tea then you don't have to read any further.**

**If you find it amusing so far and wish to be amused another day at least then I'll see you tomorrow!**

**DS**


	8. Tuesday 8th

**If you are reading this you are brilliant and awesome!**

**That's all I have to say.**

**AWESOME.**

**Also, this is gonna be a shooooort chapter because I just came back from a book launch and I have an hour to write it in. So I've decided just to use some stuff that happened to my family whilst we were skiing.**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 8th – 17 days to go

* * *

Now that they knew they had lessons in the morning Kyoko and Kanae left with plenty time to spare so that they didn't have to take the same shortcut as yesterday, much to Kanae's delight.

They made their way over to the ski instructor and got ready, banging the snow from the bottom of their boots before clicking into their skis.

"Okay." The instructor said, smiling brightly, "After yesterday's productive lesson," here he turned to Kanae, "I thought we would try a blue run. It's the easiest one we've got and pretty flat." He spotted Kyoko's nervousness and continued, "We'll take it as slow as we need to but it'll be fun! Come on, it starts just behind that ski lift over there. We'll ski over nice and easy."

Kanae started past him and headed in the direction he pointed with complete ease, Sho following her a few seconds after with just a little less grace.

Kyoko stayed exactly where she was. The instructor slid over to her.

"Come on, you can do it. Remember what I taught you yesterday? Keep your knees bent and lean forward slightly." He helped her into the correct position. "Right. Now just slide your feet like your shuffling and push yourself with your poles."

Kyoko followed his instructions, sliding forward a few feet and looking mighty pleased about the accomplishment.

"That's it!" The instructor enthused, "Now just do that again and work yourself into a rhythm."

It took a while but eventually Kyoko got the hang of it and made her way across the flat plain to where the others were waiting behind the ski lift queue. Both Kanae and Sho looked happy that she had managed to get that far without any disasters.

"Right!" The instructor said, clapping his hands together. "The blue run is pretty much the same as that, so just continue to do what you just did and you'll be fine. I'll be in the front, so just follow me. I'll stop every so often so you can catch up then we'll go on."

They all nodded their agreement.

"Kanae, could you take the back?"

"Sure."

"Right then, let's be off."

They took off and all was going well until halfway through the run where Kyoko seemed to have some trouble with her ski poles.

"Arg! They just won't...!" She scrabbled at the material looped around her wrist.

"Here," Sho stopped next to her, taking off his gloves so that he could untangle her better, "let me help."

"Are you guys ok? We're losing the instructor." Kanae called out to them from behind.

"Yeah, sure." Sho answered, "Kyoko's just having a little trouble with her poles. Why don't you catch up to the instructor and we'll follow?"

"I don't know...I'm supposed to stay at the back..."

"Yeah but," Sho argued, "You can see where he went. I've already lost him in all the other skiers. And I'm not exactly going to miss you in _that_ jacket."

Kanae looked torn. On the one hand she was supposed to be behind Kyoko and Sho in case they got into trouble. On the other she had been skiing at a really slow pace all morning and Sho's argument _did_ make sense...

"Ok then, but just make sure you hurry up."

She started off after instructor leaving Sho and Kyoko by themselves. There was an awkward silence for a moment before Kyoko pouted.

"I didn't need your help."

Sho smiled as his fingers nimbly untangled the knots.

"I mean..." Kyoko began again, "I guess...thanks." She grumbled out the last part, hoping he wouldn't hear her. The brightening of his smile told her she didn't try hard enough.

"It's no problem, Kyoko. Was just glad to be of help. There!" He fumbled the poles and dropped them on the floor. "Woops, I'll just..." he bent down to pick them up to present them to her when he noticed that she wasn't next to him anymore. "Er...Kyoko?"

A scream alerted him to the figure of Kyoko as she slid forward, down an incline that they had missed because snow seemed to _hide_ these things.

Sho stared after her dumbfounded, as she seemed to speed up and disappear into the distance, unable to stop because he still held her poles in his hand.

"Crap."

---/---

Kanae was having a great time.

Unencumbered by the pace of the others and with quite a stretch to go before she had to stop by the instructor she had worked herself up until she was going quite fast, enjoying the cold wind whipping through her hair.

Before this she would have never thought that she would enjoy skiing so much.

She listened to the sound of the freshly fallen snow pass under her skis, the laughter of the children to the right of her, Kyoko screaming.

Wait.

She jerked her head around, Kyoko's name on her lips when a pink blur flashed past her.

"Kyoko?!" She yelled after her friend, disbelief written across her face. Pushing herself as fast as she could she barely managed to catch up enough so that Kyoko could hear her. "What are you doing?!"

"Oh God, oh God, oh God, I can't stop I can't stop helpmehelpme_helpmehelpmehelpme_!"

"Kyoko! Hang on I'll..."

Unfortunately for both Kyoko and Kanae there was another incline just ahead. Usually this would not bother new skiers to much but Kyoko couldn't slow herself down at all and was just picking up speed.

Kanae reached out to grab her best friend, ready to sacrifice herself and bring them both tumbling to the ground. It was at the exact moment that Kanae's gloves grazed Kyoko's jacket that Kyoko sped up _again_ and shot forward.

Kanae couldn't match that type of speed and she had to settle for watching Kyoko disappear off into the distance.

"Crap."

---/---

By the time both Sho and Kanae caught up with Kyoko, their instructor was pulling her out of a snowdrift she had landed in head first.

"I didn't know that you could pick up that kind of speed on a _blue_ run." He mumbled to himself as he brushed the snow from Kyoko's hair. "You ok?" he asked her.

"Yeah," Kyoko coughed slightly, "No thanks to _some people_." She shot both Kanae and Sho a glare at that, feeling slightly vindicated that they both winced.

"Right..." the instructor said, "Well, after all that _excitement_, how about we call it a day? Or would you like to do the run again?"

"No!" Kyoko shouted, then caught herself and bowed slightly. "Thank you for the offer but I think I need a drink to warm me up. I swear I've got half that pile of snow down the back of my shirt."

Kanae looked like she wanted to protest but seeing the poisonous look Kyoko shot at her she subsided without saying anything.

The instructor chuckled. "No problem. We'll do this again tomorrow, ok? Same time, same place but I'll take you on a different blue run. Maybe one that's even flatter...if we have one."

"Thank you."

He pointed just a little further down the run. "That way leads to the village. You can get something to drink at the small cafe there. See you tomorrow."

They waved him off before slowly making their way in the direction he pointed. Very soon they were settled at a table, their ski equipment shoved in the snow outside, and drinking something hot and relaxing.

"Kyoko-chan?" Kyoko turned at the sound of her name as Ren walked over beside them. "Are you ok?"

"Ah! Tsuruga-san!" Kyoko said, just remembering their agreement to go out with him sometime that day.

"She had a little accident." Sho answered for her, glaring at the taller male.

Ren glared back before turning his attention back to Kyoko. He looked worried. "Are you hurt anywhere? Are you still wanting to go out this afternoon with me?"

"No. No I'm not hurt, it wasn't anything too serious..." she played down the incident, "but...could we postpone until some other time? I just...I don't think I can go back out on the slopes right now..."

"Of course," Ren stroked her hair, "I remember what it was like the first time I learned to ski. We can postpone. I'll see you tonight then."

"Er..." Kyoko said, her brain short circuiting at the feel of Ren stoking her hair. "Yeah, sure."

Ren smiled at her, nodded to Kanae and shot a glare at Sho before making his way outside.

The three of them stared at the closed door for a few moments before Sho turned back to face them. "Ok. What the _hell_ was _that_?!"

Kanae found herself wondering the same thing but Kyoko just blushed bright red and took another sip of her drink.

"Oh, shut up Sho and drink your hot chocolate."

* * *

**Shorter than I would have liked anyway.**

**And tomorrow's going to be a short chapter as well because I'm GOING HOME! And I shall be spending the whole day travelling.**

**Yay...**

**Reviews?**

**DS**


	9. Wednesday 9th

**Travelling all day, so this is a really short chapter.**

**But I'm home for Christmas now so I'm pretty much free! Yay! Longer chapters after this!**

**Yeah, from tomorrow there will be plotage (well...mostly. I'm still having way to much fun waking up in the morning and thinking to myself – 'Now, what can I make the characters go through today').**

**Most of the background stuff has been done (Yes, that was why there was filler – not really an excuse but meh) and I can get on with the massive character-feeling-haemorrhage thing that I've been trying to ignore.**

**Woo...**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 9th – 16 days to go

* * *

It was silent at breakfast.

Ren seemed to devoting all his energy to ignoring Yashiro as much as possible. It was oppressive and none of the other members of the group could bring themselves to interrupt whatever was going on between them.

Kyoko fidgeted nervously. She couldn't stand this silence anymore, she _had_ to do something. Steeling herself she raised her head and opened her mouth to ask Kanae to pass the juice.

As soon as she moved though, all eyes turned to her and she froze, her mouth open. Dithering for a moment she eventually let out a sigh and dropped her head so that she was, once again, staring at her plate.

She apparently could do without drinking anything.

The silence carried on, not even interrupted by the sound of cutlery on plates. It got to the point where even Lory looked a little concerned.

Eventually Kanae made the first move, standing abruptly.

Again, every eye turned to her to see if she would break.

"This is stupid." She announced. "I'm going to get ready for the lesson. Kyoko? Are you coming?"

Kyoko shifted slightly in her seat.

"Um...actually...er..." She cast a glance towards Ren, who interrupted her smoothly.

"I am going to be taking Kyoko-chan out myself today."

Kanae raised an eyebrow and looked back to Kyoko who was starting to blush.

"Yeah," Kyoko said, clearing her throat, "Ren said that he would take me out...remember?"

"Really?" Yashiro interrupted with a smile, "That's wonderful! I'm sure you'll have fun, right Ren?"

Ren ignored him and continued looking Kanae in the eye. She shifted slightly under his intense gaze, feeling a little sorry at Yashiro's crestfallen face.

"Right." She drawled nervously. "I'll just tell the instructor that you won't be in lessons today."

Kyoko nodded and watched as Kanae left the room.

"Kyoko-chan." Ren brought her attention back to himself. "We should get ready too if we want to get to the slopes early."

"Yeah." Kyoko nodded and followed him from the room, looking one last time at Yashiro who was slumped in his chair, Maria patting him on the hand.

---/---

"You know I..." Kyoko started when they were standing outside the front door, "I'm not very good at this."

Ren looked at her with a fond smile. "You've only been doing this for a few days. Mostly it's just practise. Once you get it you'll wonder how you ever struggled with it in the first place."

"R-really?"

Ren smiled and Kyoko felt herself relax.

"Come on, we go this way."

"Um...but..."

Ren turned to look at her questioningly. "Yeah?"

"The road to the village is that way." Kyoko said, pointing behind them.

"I know," Ren said, "But if we go this way," he pointed forward, "it cuts onto a blue slope that we can take to the bottom instead of walking all the way down."

"Oh." Kyoko flushed, "Right."

Kyoko hesitantly followed behind Ren, nervously gripping her ski poles. She wasn't ready for this, she really wasn't.

But Ren seemed to know that she was unsure of herself and slowed down until he was shuffling alongside her, correcting her stance and grip whenever she had some trouble.

Kyoko felt her face heat up every time this happened, not from embarrassment as she had first thought she would feel but because Ren looked so serious as he helped her.

It really made her feel that at that moment in time, she was all Ren was thinking about. His entire world was her.

She jerked at the thought and nearly fell over. She would have too if Ren hadn't reached out and caught her, steadying her.

"Are you ok?" He asked quietly.

Kyoko flushed and inwardly hoped that he would attribute it to the cold. "Um...yeah." she said, almost stuttering because he hadn't removed his hand from her arm. "I...yeah."

"Ok then," he looked dubious but relented, straightening up and moving out of her personal space, for which she was grateful. "If you're sure."

_What was that_?! Kyoko thought as she followed behind Ren once again, following his instructions and trying to ignore the way his hand brushing against her back as he steadied her made her stomach flutter, and that it lingered slightly too long to be just helpful.

She was so caught up in her frantic thoughts that she didn't realise that she had gotten to the bottom of the slope until Ren turned to face her with a smile.

"That was brilliant, Kyoko-chan. You didn't make one mistake."

Kyoko blinked then looked around her, seeing that they were standing by the ski lifts her eyes widened. "I did it?" She asked, completely dumbfounded.

"Yeah."

"I did it!" She yelled, jubilantly. Then without thinking leapt forward and hugged Ren.

Or at least she would have if she hadn't forgotten she was wearing skis. The front tip caught and they both went down in a tangle of limbs. Kyoko landing on top of Ren.

It took her a few moments to work out what had happened, but when she did she tried to scramble up without removing her skis, causing them to become even more tangled together.

"I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!"

Ren wrapped his arms around her, stilling her and pulling her to his chest. "Don't worry about it. But you should really stop wiggling about, it's making this worse."

Kyoko froze.

Ren chuckled softly in her ear, his warm breath brushing against the shell. "Hang on a moment." He said, reaching down behind her and picking up a ski pole.

Within a few seconds he had popped the back of her boot clasps. As soon as she was free Kyoko scrambled up and helped to pull Ren up from his position, unable to meet his eye.

"Well," he said after he had sorted himself out, "I haven't fallen over in years, but that was one of the more enjoyable experiences."

Kyoko's blush intensified but he just patted her on the shoulder.

"Come on, he continued. "Get ready and I'll take you to another blue run."

---/---

It was late into the afternoon when they finally called it a day.

Ren led them to the same cafe in the village that he had met them in yesterday and settled them both down with a hot chocolate.

Kyoko let the quiet chatter of the locals wash over her, enjoying the peace she was sharing with Ren. They weren't speaking, but it wasn't awkward. It was a silence born of familiarity and Kyoko felt herself enjoying it immensely.

"Thank you for taking me out today Ren." she said when they had finished their drinks and were just sitting, relaxing.

Ren looked a little startled before he smiled softly. "It was my pleasure, Kyoko."

* * *

**There was supposed to be a whole 'nother section to this but as I was writing it I decided to expand it...so you'll get it tomorrow. **

**...I think I made Ren a pervert in this chapter...O____O**

**Thoughts?**

**DS**


	10. Thursday 10th

**Bad things in real life have happened lately. **

**I am unimpressed with how December is turning out so far.**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 10th – 15 days to go

* * *

Yashiro had had enough.

For the past week or so Ren had been ignoring him, and all because he was trying to help!

Ok, sure. He could have gone about it in a more tasteful way, but he had spent months trying to get Ren to _see the light_ so to speak and get together with Kyoko.

This holiday had been a Godsend. They were away from the fans which allowed some privacy, away from other actors and actresses which meant that professional jealousy wasn't a factor and they were away from work.

Meaning that they were _supposed_ to not be doing anything except notice each other!

But they weren't.

Because one was oblivious and the other was Ren.

So he had gone for the blatant in-your-face technique and hounded after Ren at every possible opportunity.

It hadn't gone well.

Apparently Ren didn't like being hounded and had promptly cut ties to the annoyance. Which meant Yashiro.

Yashiro _had_ thought they had had a deeper relationship. Maybe not best friends – but something definitely more than just manager and client.

They way Ren was acting towards him now though, threw all those thoughts into doubt. He was treating Yashiro, not as a friend, not even as an enemy, but as someone who he could not be bothered working up the effort to deal with.

Hence the major silent treatment.

It kind of..._hurt_.

Yashiro sighed into his morning cup of tea.

He just had to come face to face with the facts. It seemed like, in helping Ren, he had lost all trust and respect the actor had in him.

And still his plans were incomplete!

Even after yesterdays step forward they were still being idiotically oblivious about the whole thing. He had expected...he didn't actually know. But he _had_ expected _something_.

That something had not come, and the frustration had mounted until he had decided to take on this matter by himself.

No longer would he leave Ren's love life up to Ren. The guy obviously had no clue how to go about anything in that department, whereas Yashiro did.

So, now that he knew that after this holiday he was practically fired (for what actor can perform to the best of his skills if he does not trust the people behind him?) he found himself in the unique position to practically tie those two together until they realised what morons they were being.

Thus, Operation Moron had begun.

Stage One - get Ren to realise how much he cares for Kyoko with a little help from jealousy.

And how would he do that? Well...that would just remain to be seen.

---/---

Kyoko was having a good day.

She had woken up without feeling stiff and sore from a day's worth of skiing, an odd occurrence but one for which she was happy about.

She thanked Ren for all his help. Because of him, she hadn't fallen once yesterday.

...Except that time at the bottom of the ski lifts where she had jumped him and brought them both crashing to the ground.

But she wasn't going to think about that!

Earlier that morning Maria had woke her up and practically begged her to stay at the mansion today to play with her.

Feeling a little guilty for practically ignoring the small girl for so long, she immediately said yes. Then tried to think a way that she could tell Lory that she was going to miss the second day in a row, of skiing classes that he had paid for.

It hadn't seemed to matter all that much to him once he had learned that she was going to be spending the day with his granddaughter.

Though she did account some of the acceptance to Maria's effective puppy-dog expression.

Kyoko shivered when she remembered it. That look was practically _lethal_, and she pitied the poor man that ever stood in Maria's way.

"So," Maria asked once they were outside the dining room, "what do you want to do?"

"Well, we could explore the place?"

"And see if it has a dungeon?!"

Kyoko shrugged, "Yeah, sure. Why not?"

"Cool!" Maria said excitedly and tugged on Kyoko's hand, pulling her down the corridor. "We should go this way! 'Cos it goes downhill!"

Kyoko put up no resistance to being dragged through all the rooms and hallways the mansion had to offer. In fact, she was relatively sure that they were the first two to disturb some of the lower level rooms in decades, if the amount of dust had anything to do with it.

Unfortunately for Maria, they didn't find any dungeons. But they did find a suitably creepy cellar that Maria claimed for her own as some sort of secret base.

Kyoko was amused and helped tidy the place up some and making Maria promise never to light candles in their on her own which she seemed a little disappointed about.

By the time lunch came around they were both extremely hungry and quickly made their way back to the dining hall. It was with some surprise that she saw Ren sitting at the table along with the President and Yashiro.

As they entered the room everyone looked at them in surprise.

Kyoko stopped short, wondering just what they were staring at. It was only when she looked down at herself that she realised that she was entirely grey with dust, as was Maria. They hadn't realised when they were exploring the cellar because of the dim light.

She flushed a bit in embarrassment but before she could do anything Yashiro was standing next to her, helping her brush off the worst of it.

Her smile faltered a little when his hands lingered just a second too long on her shoulders. She looked at him, wondering what he was doing but as soon as her eyes made contact with his own she was caught.

She stood helplessly as he slowly wiped away a smudge of dirt from her cheek.

"There," he said lowly, "all better."

Kyoko's eyes widened a fraction when he didn't move, one hand still on her shoulder and the other resting against her cheek, the thumb tracing her cheekbone.

She swallowed thickly, the air around them seemingly crackling with electricity.

A low growl broke them out of..._whatever_ that had just been and Kyoko looked away sharply, her heart pounding a mile a minute and her breath shaky.

The growl sounded again and this time Kyoko could see that it was coming from _Ren_, who looked at Yashiro with such hate in his eyes that Kyoko was sure Yashiro soon beg for mercy.

A quick glance to Yashiro had her dumbfounded. For instead of Yashiro cowering like any _sane_ person would do, he was standing beside her, his face completely blank.

Kyoko looked back and forth between the two men who, for all their supposed maturity, seemed to be having a staring competition.

Eventually Yashiro slowly raised an eyebrow, as if taunting Ren for being so immature, and turned back to face her. Ignoring everyone else in the room.

"I find myself not particularly hungry at the moment." He murmured softly to her, "I hope you will excuse me from your company."

His unwavering focus had Kyoko blushing self-consciously. She was nervous, but also slightly flattered at the attention. "Y-yes, of course." She managed to stutter out from under his gaze.

He smiled softly at her and stroked the back of his fingers down the side of her face and neck.

"I will see you later then."

Kyoko nodded once, a jerk of her head and watched as he practically glided out of the room, the door closing softly behind him.

With wide eyes Kyoko turned back to face the others who were sitting at the table. Ren looked like he could happily and easily kill someone at that very moment, his teeth grinding together. Lory was staring at her with wide eyes, obviously shocked.

Maria, though, was staring at the door and managed to succinctly summarise the entire situation with one word. "Whoa."

---/---

Kyoko had never been at the mansion whilst lunch was served so she was curious about the food that was presented to them as traditional Italian dishes. All she wanted to do was enjoy the different food and try to forget what had just happened.

Obviously Yashiro had just hit his head on a low-hanging chandelier.

Obviously.

Unfortunately, whatever hope she had for a peaceful _forgettable_ lunch was dashed.

The atmosphere around the table was oppressive. Ren still looked angry and it was a testament to how strongly he felt about what had just happened by the fact that he was actually _showing_ his emotions and not just hiding them away behind a blank mask and his polite smile.

It didn't stop Kyoko from wincing every time he viciously stabbed his fork into whatever was on his plate in front of him, mashing it into a thick paste.

Lory was silent as well, his gaze fluctuating between the closed door and Ren's bad attitude. After the first shock had worn off he had relaxed a little, and Kyoko even thought that he seemed a little amused by what had happened.

Indeed, every so often the corners of his lips would twitch as if he was in on some amusing secret that he wasn't going to tell anyone else about.

Kyoko didn't find that in the least amusing.

Maria, though, was looking worried. Closely mirroring Kyoko's own feelings on the matter. She was staring morosely at her plate and eating quietly, lost in her own thoughts.

Kyoko's shoulders sagged. And today was supposed to be relaxing! It had started out so well.

Just what the hell had Yashiro been playing at?!

---/---

After lunch Kyoko and Maria went outside. Fortunately no one else followed them for they had many things to discuss.

Under the guise of making snow angels the two girls talked.

"Do you know what happened in there?" Kyoko asked as she lay on her back, spreading her arms out to the side of her.

"No." Maria answered from her position to the right, "But I don't like it. They shouldn't be fighting like this!"

"I wonder why they are though," Kyoko mused, "I mean...they've been acting like this the entire time we've been here, right?"

Maria took a moment to think about this. "Yeah, I think you're right! But _why_? Why are they fighting? And why did Yashiro-san act all weird with you."

"I don't know. Maybe he hit his head?"

"But would Ren act worried for him if he was hurt?"

"I...maybe? It doesn't make sense."

They both lay there on the snowy ground, staring at the cloudy grey sky that promised a fresh layer of snow.

"Kyoko?" Maria finally said in a small voice, "I don't like it when they fight."

Kyoko sighed. "But what can we do? We don't know why they're fighting in the first place so we can't fix it."

"Maybe..." Maria trailed off, "how long do you think this will last?"

Kyoko shrugged, standing from her position and admiring her work. "Until one or both of them realises that they're being idiots, I think."

"But I want to help them!"

Kyoko sighed and pulled Maria to her feet. "I know you do, but we really can't do anything at the moment. Our best bet is to get them to talk, or get them to realise how much they mean to each other."

"You mean like lock them in a room together?"

Kyoko paled as she imagined how that would end up if they trapped them both in a room together right now. "Er...I think Ren would actually kill Yashiro if we did that. Maybe we just have to make Ren realise how much he would miss Yashiro if he was gone from his life."

Maria looked up at Kyoko. "So...if Ren thought Yashiro was in trouble...?"

Kyoko grinned "That could work."

They both looked down at the imprints they had made in the snow.

They _would_ make this better, and no force in heaven or hell could stop them.

* * *

**MWAHAHAHA! THAT IS RIGHT READERS! THE PAIRING IS YASHIRO/KYOKO!**

**BET YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING! XD**

**Oooooh...I predict bad times are going to come from this chapter...**

**Thoughts?**

**DS**

**Edit: My internet died just as I was about to post this chapter. So it's late but still has the right timestamp. Gah! Internets! Why do you infect my computer with Trojans?!**


	11. Friday 11th

**Lol.**

**Just...lol.**

**Yeah...was yanking your chains with the Yashiro/Kyoko comment (or was I?!) The Yashiro/Kyoko story is still in the planning stages :P**

**And yes, if you did enjoy the Yashiro/Kyoko moment that DOES mean you're a fan! Ahahaha – welcome to the weird side!**

**I want to thank all of you who reviewed the last chapter – it really made my day :) AND my computer is sorted – I think.**

**The internet is still acting a little screwy though so...¬¬**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 11th – 14 days to go

* * *

The atmosphere at breakfast was painful.

And not just painfully awkward, though it was that as well.

Kyoko, with wide eyes, kept her head down and tried to ignore what was going on around her. Namely the glares of death that Ren was shooting at Yashiro.

Kanae, who was sitting next to her, kept looking between the two older males in confusion. Kyoko would have explained why Ren was trying to kill Yashiro with his eyes but she _really_ didn't want to bring attention to herself.

She valued her life, thank you very much.

When it looked like Kanae was going to open her mouth and say something Kyoko grabbed her hand under the table and squeezed hard, trying to get it across to her that saying anything at this time would be a very, _very _bad idea.

Kanae shot her a confused look but seemed to understand the silent warning and stayed quiet – with a warning of her own that she _would_ get an explanation by the end of the day.

Kyoko looked up then quickly looked back down at her plate.

At this moment, she wished that Yashiro hadn't come down to breakfast with them. She felt a little mean about it because Lory specifically invited him here for a holiday whilst she was only brought for help, but with the way he had acted yesterday...

He hadn't turned up for dinner that night, and Kyoko was both pleased and a little disappointed. She had shared a look with Maria that reinforced the decision that they had made earlier that afternoon.

But now, once she knew how they acted when put in the same room _with company_...

She sighed.

She had no idea how she and Maria were going to make this work. They hadn't thought it would get this bad in such a short space of time.

They had assumed that after a night to sleep on it Ren's voice of reason would kick in and he would be able to think over what had just happened logically. And maybe it would make sense to him. Because, no matter how many times Kyoko thought over what had happened (always with an embarrassed flush on her cheeks) it didn't make sense to her.

But no. Apparently life wasn't fair that way, and instead of Ren listening to his voice of reason – or at least becoming icily polite like he did when faced with someone he didn't like – he had let the incident and his emotions fester until he was one raging ball of...well..._rage_.

He was still showing his emotions openly damn it! And that was _never_ good. Kyoko had never seen him act this volatile for such a long period of time.

_He must be really close to Yashiro_, she thought, _if he's this comfortable in showing his emotions to him_.

Yashiro, who for all intents and purposes was calmly ignoring Ren, reached out to pick up the jug of juice sitting next to Kyoko. The killer intent in the room spiked drastically at the close proximity.

Yashiro continued to ignore everything, and calmly poured himself a drink, even as Kyoko shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Ren's rage wasn't directed at her but she could still feel the backlash.

Like it was her fault that the juice had been placed next to her!

In the end it was Kanae, again, who saved her. Standing, she dragged Kyoko up by the hand. "Well!" she chuckled nervously, "Time to go!" Then started pulling her out of the room.

Kyoko was all too willing to go and didn't even try to hinder her.

"Wait." Ren's voice cut across their quick escape. "I believe _I_ will accompany you." He said this whilst looking at Yashiro, daring him to challenge his choice.

Yashiro raised an eyebrow, which only increased Ren's bad temper. Then he smirked and Kyoko had to repress a full body shiver when he turned in his seat to look at her.

"Kyoko," he murmured, reaching for her hand, "have a good day on the slopes." He pressed a kiss to the back of it. Kyoko could feel the slight smile against her skin. "Stay safe."

As the rest of the group stared at him, Yashiro stood and quickly exited the room.

Slowly, Kyoko pivoted to look at Ren. He was standing, staring at the door, his right hand twitching as if he was imagining throttling someone.

No second guesses as to who _that_ would be.

His face though, was completely blank.

Kyoko didn't know if that was a good thing or not. Though she had a feeling it was more to the _oh-my-god-why-aren't-you-running?_ end of the scale.

She was thankful when Kanae seemed to collect her wits about her and finish pulling her out of the room.

"Ok," her friend hissed, "What was _that_?!"

It took Kyoko a moment to get her throat working again, but when she finally did figure out how she told Kanae the whole story, including the plan she and Maria had cooked up, culminating in what had just occurred mere minutes ago.

Kanae looked suitably terrified. Even more so when Ren joined them outside, getting ready to ski down the same slope he had taken Kyoko down a few days before.

"Does he have a _death wish_?" Kanae hissed to Kyoko as both girls carefully followed Ren's tracks.

"It certainly seems so. I don't think I've _ever_ seen Ren act like this. He doesn't even seem to be the same person."

"He's a lot more...violent..." Kanae shuddered at the vibes she was getting off him.

Kyoko nodded, concentrating on getting down the slope without tripping and rolling the rest of the way. "I don't even know _how_ we're going to fix this."

---/---

Sho was having a good day.

He had been a little disappointed over the past few days when Kyoko hadn't turned up for lessons. Kanae had explained it to their instructor who seemed to understand.

He just couldn't get rid of the thought that it was his fault Kyoko had skipped out. Was she mad that he had made her crash – even though he had only been trying to help? Was she just avoiding him?

Had Ren gotten his slimy paws all over her?

The last thought made him bristle. Damn it, if Ren had done anything to her...

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the figure that was sneaking up on him until an arm wrapped around his waist and a firm body pressed against his back.

"Hello, Sho."

Sho squeaked (something that he would deny to his dying day) and scrabbled at the arm around him, trying to dislodge it.

Reino just chuckled darkly, his mouth next to Sho's ear sending shocks travelling down his spine.

"Reino." Sho ground out, and was eternally thankful that his voice didn't waver. "What the hell do you want?"

That arm around his waist tightened briefly and Sho's eyes widened when Reino nuzzled into his neck.

"Oh, Sho..." he practically _purred_. "You have no idea, do you?"

"No idea about _what_?"

Reino chuckled again and Sho cursed himself for reacting at the sound. "Sho," Reino continued, "If you don't leave Kyoko alone...I'm afraid something bad will happen."

It took Sho's brain a few seconds to work out what Reino had just implied. "Are you _threatening_ me?!" He asked incredulously.

"Threatening?" Reino asked, stepping away and allowing Sho to turn around, "No, no. Nothing so uncouth. I'm merely..._warning_...that's all."

"Why you...!" Sho said, starting forward.

"Oh look!" Reino said, "You're little friends have arrived."

Sho turned sharply to discover that Kanae and Kyoko were indeed skiing towards him, led by Ren. It wasn't until he whirled back round to confront Reino again that he realised that Reino had used this as a distraction.

Sho cursed under his breath, brushing off the whole encounter. Reino could huff and puff – but that's all he would ever do.

A threat by him wasn't something that would be acted on. He was more about psychologically attacking his enemies than doing anything physically.

And he was confident that he could handle anything mental that Reino dished out to him.

He certainly wasn't going to give up Kyoko because some psycho wanted her for himself!

By the time he had finished pumping himself up, Kyoko, Kanae and Ren had arrived.

Sho took one look at Ren and his eyes widened.

"Whoa." He whispered to Kanae, who he was on more or less friendly terms with, "What crawled up his butt and died?"

Kanae shushed him, even though he was whispering, and shot a fearful glance at Ren, who was standing with his back to them.

"It's a long story." She whispered back, "But the short version is that Yashiro has been hitting on Kyoko and Ren is pissed about it."

"Yashiro?" Sho asked, nonplussed.

"Ren's manager."

"Wow. That explains the bad mood then." Sho paused, "Wait." He said, his eyes narrowing, "Someone made the moves on Kyoko?!"

The last part was shouted out and brought Ren's attention to the conversing duo. Kanae paled and tried to edge backwards to where Kyoko was keeping herself out of the way.

Sho ignored the anger radiating of the taller man because _he_ was pretty angry himself! Yashiro had apparently cornered Kyoko or something and forced himself on her!

The bastard!

And Kyoko had to sleep in the same house as him every night! This was unforgivable!

"This is all _your_ fault!" Sho shouted, pointing at Ren.

"Excuse me?!" Ren practically hissed at the blond male.

"Yeah." Sho said, absolute in his conviction. "If you only learned to keep your manager in line this would never have happened!"

Ren's eyes widened, but before he could say or do anything, the instructor arrived and interrupted the confrontation.

"Ok!" he said chirpily, "Today we'll be using the ski lifts to get to a blue run. The lifts seat three, but because I don't want one of you sitting on your own we're going to split off into pairs. Kanae, if you come with me – we'll go first, and Kyoko and Sho can come up on the next one."

The argument was on hold for the moment, and Kyoko could only feel relief at the fact.

She really didn't want to try and stop Ren committing murder on holiday.

Unfortunately, fate seemed to hate her because, when she sat down on the lift seat with Sho on her right, Ren took the place to her lift.

Before she could protest this the bar had come down and they were off.

She felt completely and utterly helpless as her feet dangled in thin air, the ground far below them, as she sat between two feuding males hundreds of feet above the ground.

They were glaring at each other over the top of her head and she _really_ hoped that they wouldn't start to try and claw at each other because she _really, really_ didn't want to fall.

Nervously, she gripped the bar in front of her and prayed to every God and Goddess she could remember that she would survive this.

She just wanted this day to be over already!

* * *

**It was foggy today! Woo! Anyone else got any bad/wintery weather? (Though I will admit that fog is more autumn than winter...)**

**Ahaha – the image of Reino when he sneaked up on Sho amuses me to no end.**

**Speaking of! I have another question that I would be grateful if you'd answer – Would you read an Advent if one of the couples was Slash? And if so – which characters?**

**Again – the question doesn't apply to this – I'm just curious. **

**HONEST! It's for future reference!**

**DS**


	12. Saturday 12th

**I really, honest to God, didn't mean anything by the question at the end of last chapter. I swear!**

**So – we're halfway through! **

**Almost, well, today and tomorrow at least.**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 12th – 13 days to go

* * *

Reino didn't consider himself to be evil.

It was true that he had a hobby that not many people would agree with, and it was true that this hobby including destroying originals – in whatever shape they came in.

Lately he had set his sights on one Sho Fuwa. But he had been exasperated to find that Fuwa was as difficult to break as a cockroach. He had stolen his music, stolen his style, blatantly rubbed Sho's face in his success, but that didn't work.

Then he had turned his attention to those closest to Sho, the argument being that if the loss of achievement and material gains didn't affect him then a personal attack would.

That was how he had come across Kyoko Mogami. He had threatened to rape her, so that the only thing Sho saw when he looked at her would be him. He hadn't even planned to go through with it, he knew he scared the girl and he knew that Sho had been close. He used this against the girl, terrifying her so that she couldn't move, leaving her in a state of semi-undress so that – even though he _hadn't_ done anything – there would always be that suspicion.

And even if the girl denied it later Sho would still not fully believe her.

He would always see him.

But it hadn't worked.

Sho had hit back, and he had hit back _hard._

Reino hadn't counted on this reaction. Nothing from his personal experience had prepared him to deal with this.

It wasn't until he was lying on the ground in the woods, his plans in tatters around his feet that he realised something important. Sho had become to mean more to him than just a target – something to break.

Sho had intrigued him, and he found that he wanted Sho's attention all to himself even more now than he had previously.

It had been a game, now it was an obsession.

This was why he couldn't stand the thought of Kyoko being anywhere near what was his. He knew Sho had feelings for the girl, and while she was in the picture Sho's attention would always be divided.

He could attack the girl again, but he knew he had already lost that battle.

No, all there was to do now was manipulate the events around them so that it would seem that she disappeared on her own. Then Sho could get over her and he could start working on him again.

Reino reached the desk in the guard cabin by the ski lift and took the weather report for today.

Hmm, perfect. A blizzard was the perfect way to engineer a freak accident.

Quickly but carefully, he switched the current report with one from a few days ago that detailed cloudy skies but no chance of snow. Hardly anyone would notice that the only thing that was wrong with the report was the date.

Grinning to himself, he left the cabin and made his way back to the hotel, passing by hoards of people who were heading up the slopes, but eying the clouds worryingly.

He didn't want to be on the mountainside today, _that_ was for sure.

---/---

Kyoko stood off to the side of the ski lift next to Sho and Ren, Kanae having forgone coming with them to stay at the mansion with Maria, strangely enough the instructor had called to say that the lesson would be cancelled that day. Ren was silently staring at the sky, his face creased in a frown as he took in the heavy grey clouds rolling above them.

"Kyoko-chan." He said quietly. Immediately Kyoko perked up, wondering just what he wanted. "Could you go to the guard cabin and see what the weather report for today is? I don't like the look of that sky..."

"Sure, Ren-san." Kyoko answered, walking over to the small cabin and disappearing inside.

When she reappeared she quickly made her way over to where they were standing.

"Well?" Ren asked her.

"It says that it's going to be cloudy but no chance of snow."

Ren's frowned increased and he looked back up to the sky one last time. "Well," he said eventually, "I guess I was wrong..."

"Kyoko?"

Ren and Kyoko turned around. Ren practically bristling at the informality that Sho was addressing Kyoko with. They weren't _that_ close, were they?

First Yashiro and now Sho?

"Yeah, Sho?" Kyoko asked.

Apparently they _were_ that close.

"Could I talk to you for a minute?" Sho asked, shooting a glance at Ren, "Privately?"

Kyoko was a little suspicious, but overall Sho hadn't done anything _too_ bad lately.

_Surely_, she reasoned, _just talking with him won't be too bad_.

"Ok." She said, following him as he led her away and completely missing the glare Ren shot at Sho's back. "What do you want?" she asked when they were deemed to be far enough away to have a reasonable semblance of privacy.

"I wanted to ask you..." Sho trailed off, and then blushed bright red. Obviously embarrassed about what he was about to ask.

"Yeah?" Kyoko asked, slightly amused despite herself.

"I was...did Yashiro do anything to you?" Sho asked in a rush, the words tumbling from his mouth.

Kyoko took a moment to process what he had just asked then concluded that he _did_ just say what she thought he had said.

"_What_?!"

"I – I mean..." he continued, his blush never abating, "He's been acting weird to you. A-and you sleep in the same _house_ as him and..."

"Oh my God!" Kyoko interrupted, "No!"

"Oh. That's good then." Sho tried vainly to get himself under control.

"Why would you even _think_ that?!" Kyoko asked, horrified. Sure, Yashiro had been acting weird for the past few days or so but she could never think of him as stooping _that_ low!

"I was worried about you after Reino!" Sho hissed, "You may not realise this but crazy people tend to migrate to you!"

"Excuse me?!"

"It's true! It's like they can smell you or something!"

Kyoko's mouth dropped open, "Are you trying to say that I _smell_?!"

"No!" Sho said, horrified. "That wasn't supposed to come out like that!"

Kyoko huffed and stormed off to stand next to Ren, intent on ignoring Sho for all she was worth.

Sho just groaned and dropped his face into his hands.

---/---

Ren wasn't jealous.

He _wasn't_!

Not even when Kyoko acted friendly with Sho, going off with him and standing away from everyone else.

He couldn't hear what they were saying but by the way Sho was blushing he had a feeling it wasn't anything good.

In fact, he had a sneaking suspicion that Sho was confessing to Kyoko.

Damn it! First Yashiro and now Sho?! Was someone conspiring against him here? He didn't want to just be another person in the line. He wanted to be the only one!

Even though he knew that they shouldn't be together and that it couldn't work...

Still! He had to do something about this.

He looked back up to the mountain. A thought occurred to him and he allowed a small smile to twist his lips. It would be perfect. Revenge against Sho whom he knew deserved it, but nothing of the lethal kind.

You couldn't die of humiliation now, could you?

---/---

The run up the mountain was quiet but thick with tension.

The group of three disembarked and stood a little ways off to the side.

"So, where do we go from here?" Kyoko asked, never having been up this high before.

"I was thinking of taking you on a new run." Ren answered.

"Over there then?" Sho asked, pointing to where most of the other skiers were heading to.

"No. That run looks a little busy; we'll go on this one." Ren replied and pointed to the opposite side of the lift to a run that had no one on it.

Sho shrugged and started skiing over to it slowly, Kyoko following.

"It's not hard is it?" Kyoko asked Ren in a small voice.

"Don't worry," Ren smiled at her, "as long as you're with me you'll be safe."

Ren started off first slowly, Sho following with Kyoko taking up the rear. He smirked to himself, this was perfect, he could humiliate Sho and get his revenge and Sho would never want to tag along when he took Kyoko out skiing again.

It wasn't until twenty minutes in to the run that things started going wrong.

The first thing that Ren noticed was that it started snowing, lightly at first but it soon turned quite heavy.

That was weird. It wasn't supposed to snow today. And, even though he was good – he didn't think that he was good enough to traverse a black run in heavy snowfall. Never mind Kyoko and Sho.

He was so caught up in his musings that he didn't see the small fence with the sign on it until he hit it. He let out a shout of surprise as his skis got jammed between the slats of wood and the safety locks on his skis activated, releasing his boots from the restraints.

He hadn't been travelling very fast, as he had slowed down as soon as it had started snowing seriously, but he was going fast enough and was at such an angle that as soon as this happened he was catapulted forward and over the small fence by momentum and gravity alone.

He landed face first in the snow but the tumble flipped him over until he was on his back and sliding down the mountain at an increasing speed, his jacket acting more like a bin bag for all the help it was giving him.

Sho watched as Ren disappeared into the blizzard with wide eyes, staring at the point he disappeared long after he lost sight.

Kyoko slowly side-slipped towards him.

"Sho?" she asked, "I don't think that this is such an easy run." She paused when she realised that he was practically ignoring her and staring into the distance. "Sho?" she said slowly, "What are you looking at?"

She looked down and spied a pair of skis stuck in a fence. "Are those Ren's skis?"

"Yeah..." Sho answered a little dazedly.

"Where's Ren then?"

Sho just pointed down the mountain.

"Oh. Um...so...what do we do now?"

Sho seemed to shake himself out of his daze a little. "I think...that we should take our skis off." He said decisively.

"What? Why?" Kyoko asked.

"This obviously isn't an easy run." Sho pointed out, "And Ren was the only experienced skier out of all of us. I don't really want to kill myself by accidentally skiing off a cliff because I couldn't stop.

"Besides," he continued, "we can't go back, it's too far, and Ren will need his skis too. I think we should just walk down and see where he finally slid to a stop, give him his skis back and hope that he can get us off this mountain without any of us dying."

Kyoko was a little dumbfounded. "That...actually made sense." She said, impressed.

"Right." Sho pressed on the boot release on his skis and picked them up, trudging his way carefully over to where Ren's forlorn skis resided.

Kyoko quickly followed suit. "Sho?" she asked quietly when she was standing next to him.

"Yeah?" He answered, distracted by trying to balance Ren's and his own skis together without fumbling them and losing both pairs down the mountain.

"Why does that sign have a skull and crossbones on it?"

Sho looked up alarmed, to find that the sign indeed had a skull and crossbones on it. It also declared that it was a black run and that only experienced skiers should try it in good conditions. Sho cursed under his breath, knowing that Kyoko had read the sign too and was probably panicking.

"Don't worry," he said eventually, trying to calm Kyoko down from whatever panic attack she was working herself into. "I'm sure we'll be fine, after all – we're just going to walk it. It's not like we're going at any speed so we won't run into any of the dangers head on without any warning."

He felt a little pleased with himself when the look of panic that was shadowing Kyoko's eyes turned into relief and determination. "Yeah, you're right. Let's go."

---/---

It was after an hour of slowly sliding their way down the slope and not finding any sign of Ren that things took another turn for the worse.

Sho had thought it was bad when the heavy snowfall had quickly obliterated any tracks left by Ren, it was so much worse when that heavy snowfall turned into a full blown blizzard. Sho couldn't even see Kyoko's blindingly pink ski jacket and he was standing less than five feet from her.

They had been forced to hold hands just so they wouldn't lose each other. They didn't even know if they were going in the right direction anymore, they just started to head downwards.

Eventually Sho had been forced to call it quits. Kyoko had slipped for the third time in ten minutes and dragged them both metres down the slope. It was just getting to dangerous to be out there anymore, they needed to find shelter quickly or they weren't going to survive.

It was by an ungodly amount of luck that the next time Kyoko slipped they happened upon a cave in an outcropping of rock.

Well, it wasn't exactly a _cave_ per say, more like a fissure in the rock, but they could both fit into it and it wasn't filled with snow.

Sho quickly dragged Kyoko inside and to the very back, trying to keep away from the icy cold snow at the entrance as possible.

They huddled together, their knees drawn up to their chests.

"You know," Kyoko said, forcing the words through her chattering teeth, "I blame this on you."

"What?" Sho asked, astounded, "How is any of this my fault?!"

"We should never have come down the mountain; we should have headed back up and seen if anyone could have helped us."

"And Ren? Would you have just left him?"

"We haven't even found Ren! For all we know he could have slid to the bottom of the mountain by now!"

Sho grit his teeth. "You can't blame this on me! It was _Ren_ who brought us out on the slope!"

"An honest mistake, I'm sure."

"Kyoko! He's an experienced skier! He knows these slopes and he knew this was a black slope. He purposefully brought us here and now we're trapped in a cave while there's a blizzard raging outside!"

Kyoko grimaced, baring her teeth before curling up tighter into a ball and falling silent, ignoring Sho as much as she could.

---/---

Ren had slid halfway down the slope on his back, and he swore that he had never had such a terrifying thing happen to him before.

By the time he had managed to slow himself down the snow had gotten heavier. He debated trying to walk back up and trying to find Kyoko and Sho, but when a particularly violent gust caught him in the face he decided that the best course of action was to walk the rest of the way down and alert the guards that there were two inexperienced skiers stuck on a black run in heavy snowfall.

It wasn't until he staggered to the cabin that the blizzard actually hit and Ren cursed, pushing his way through the mountain rescue workers that were rushing about, yelling orders at each other and trying to arrange teams to get people to safety.

He quickly grabbed an arm of a passing worker who was wearing a bright yellow jacket. "Excuse me," he said politely but urgently, "there are two inexperienced skiers on the black slope, I was with them but we got accidentally separated."

The worker looked disapprovingly at Ren. "What were you doing taking two novices up on a _black_ run?" He asked sharply.

Ren could only wince and look away, his plan didn't seem like such a great defence.

"Never mind." The worker said shortly. "If you go over there," here he pointed at a small table set up in the corner, "give the names of the people and where the last place you saw them or think they could be and we'll send a team out to look for them."

"Are you going up?" Ren asked quickly, "I want to go too. I need to help."

"There isn't anything you can do," The rescue worker argued, "I think you've done enough as it is, you should leave this up to the professionals. No one apart from us are going up that mountain."

Ren felt helpless, "But where I'm staying is halfway up there. Can I go home at least?"

"Sorry, you're just going to have to find a place to stay in the village or further down. There's no way you can get up there without running the risk of dying."

Ren gritted his teeth and made his way over to the table, giving the woman sitting behind the desk all the information which she quickly organised and gave to another woman who was leading the search team.

Finding himself at odds now, with nothing to do but worry, Ren tried to find a phone that would connect to the mansion even through the snowstorm. He had to give up that thought when he found that _nobody_ had a phone that could connect _anywhere._

Ren's worrying quickly passed the afternoon and before he knew it, it was evening. Not that anyone could tell the difference as the clouds had brought on an early darkness.

Floodlights had been set up around the guard cabin which Ren had refused to move from until Kyoko...and Sho...were brought down safely. He was getting in the way, he knew, but he just couldn't stay in a warm room at a hotel whilst they were still up on the mountain.

He looked up with some hope when a dozen or so exhausted people trooped in close to midnight.

"Are they safe?" He asked frantically.

"Sorry, kid." One of the older men said, "We've called off the search party for the night."

"What?!" Ren shouted, "Why? People could be _dying_ out there!"

"The snowstorm has gotten worse. Anyone we send out now has an increased chance of dying. We can't even see anymore, even with torches and no one can hear anything. Sending anyone else out there right now would just be suicide.

"Look," he said, continuing on when he saw Ren's face, "the new weather report we just got in says that the worst should be over by mid-morning. We're going to start sending people out before that to look for who's left."

With that he turned and left, leaving Ren standing there in the middle of the cabin completely lost.

---/---

Sho noticed Kyoko shivering beside him, and even though she was refusing to speak to him he didn't want her death on his hands.

"Here," he said pulling her into his lap, "Sit there. Quickly, undo your coat."

"W-what? W-w-why?"

"We'll zip our coats together, that way we can share body heat and not freeze to death out here."

Kyoko nodded and quickly followed instruction. Even so, their hands were so cold, even through the gloves that it took a few minutes to fumble the zips up.

The result was immediate though and Kyoko relaxed into Sho's warmth, her shivers abating slightly.

After a few minutes of silence Kyoko twisted her head to look at Sho, who seemed to be half asleep.

"Sho?" She asked quietly.

"Mmmm?"

"What do we do now?"

Sho peered at her through a heavily lidded eye. "All we can do is pray that someone finds us in time."

* * *

**Longest. Chapter. Ever.**

**It seriously wouldn't end!**

**Also, that story with the black run did actually happen. My skiing anecdotes are the greatest. :P**

**DS**


	13. Sunday 13th

**Day 13! Over halfway there!**

**Hope you're all enjoying this.**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 13th – 12 days to go

* * *

Kyoko was worried.

She didn't know much about medical issues, but she did know that Sho was in trouble. And if even _she_ could see that something was wrong then you definitely knew something was wrong.

He was sluggish, that was the only way to describe him. His breathing was shallow and he kept blinking _really_ slowly, like he had to pull his eyelids apart every time.

She had dozed for a while a few hours ago, then woken in a fit of panic when Sho started shivering violently. She was cold and shivering too, but she had really feared for him then, scared that he would bite off his own tongue and bleed to death.

He had tried to talk to her, to tell her that it was alright but she had made him be quiet and hugged him.

If she was honest with herself she wasn't sure why she had, whether it was to stop the shivers, to try to warm him up or just to seek comfort that he seemed to want to give her, despite everything.

Their coats were still zipped together. A few hours ago they had pulled their arms into the small space created between them to keep their hands warm. Kyoko was also still sitting in Sho's lap, she had tried to move but he had held her still saying that there wasn't any point in _both_ of them loosing heat to the floor.

She had still protested until Sho admitted that she was keeping him warm. After that she had kept quiet, though she still felt a little weird about it when she thought too much on it.

The hug seemed to help a little with Sho and Kyoko reckoned it was the heat. To try and create more she started to briskly rub his arms, feeling his skin and her own hands become warmer with the friction.

Sho moaned quietly and Kyoko looked at him. He was staring at her, his eyes half open. He looked feverish and ill.

She wanted him to stay awake.

"Sho?" She asked softly, "Why did your manager bring you here?"

It was a prompt to get him to talk, plain and simple.

It took him a few moments to process what she asked and then try to work out a reply. Kyoko could see his mouth moving as he struggled to form the words.

"It was a s'rpr'se." He slurred, his eyes closing.

"A surprise?" Kyoko asked, watching with relief as Sho's eyes blinked back open.

"Yeah. 'Cos I'm going on tour."

"Haven't you already been on tour?"

"Yeah," his voice came out a little stronger, "B't not jus' Japan, s'w'rld tour." He sounded proud about it.

"World?"

"Yeah," he yawned, slumping forward slightly, "'parently people _like_ me."

"How did they find out about your music?"

Sho shifted minutely and Kyoko felt overjoyed at the small movement. "W's ona _film_ o' some sor'."

"Really?" Kyoko asked, impressed despite of herself.

Sho nodded slowly, his eyes closed. There was a few moments of silence as Kyoko tried to think what to ask next.

"M' stom'ch hur's." Sho mumbled quietly.

"Yeah," Kyoko agreed, "I think it's just hunger though."

"Mmm," Sho hummed, and Kyoko could hear that she was losing him.

"Sho. You have to stay awake." She ordered.

"But'm _tired_."

"So am I but we can't fall asleep here, we could die."

She felt Sho clumsily pat her arm, struggling to smile at her, "S'alright, won't let 'nythin' happ'n to you."

She felt her eyes prickle at the sight and burrowed closer to him, tucking her head under his chin, trying to hold back her tears.

---/---

Ren had wanted to stay at the cabin all night but the rescue workers that were rushing about had practically forced him to leave and get a room at the hotel. They claimed that he was only getting in their way.

He didn't want to admit it to himself but he knew he was only hindering them as well.

Even so, he could not sleep, staying up all night and looking out of the window for the first sign that the storm was abating. Guilt plaguing him whenever he thought about his actions.

He could do nothing but pray that it would end soon.

It wasn't until early morning that the falling snow seemed to thin. It wasn't much, but instead of not being able to see anything at all, Ren could now pick out the courtyard across the street.

Throwing on his clothes he sprinted out of the room and back to the cabin. With the storm letting up the workers would be leaving again and he just _had_ to be there.

Indeed, when he arrived, flushed and out of breath, there were two dozen or so men and women is bright yellow jackets standing together in a group. Before he could ask what was going on, they split into a number of smaller groups, half of them taking the lift up to the top of the mountain and the other starting to walk up from the bottom.

Seeing a worker with a clipboard and walky-talky, obviously someone coordinating the search efforts, he made his way over to them.

"What's happening?"

The worker seemed to recognise who he was as he smiled grimly. "Your two friends are the only two left on the mountain. Half of our team is coming down from the top whilst the other half is going up from the bottom – we're going to see if we can find them that way."

Ren breathed out a sigh of relief until the workers next words had him choking.

"You should be warned, after the temperatures last night and the amount of experience that they have...it doesn't look good."

"But," Ren said, "there's always a chance right."

The workers silence had the hope dimming in his chest.

"Sorry kid, but even if they managed to find shelter, I don't think it's going to be pretty."

---/---

Despite Kyoko's best efforts, Sho kept falling asleep.

She had taken to poking him sharply in the side every so often to rouse him, but even that wasn't working as well as it should have been. And what was worse was that, even with their close proximity, Sho had started shivering violently again.

"'M hot..." he murmured.

Kyoko looked up at his face, taking in his pale skin, flushed cheeks and lips that were turning blue, and all she could think about is that he really shouldn't be hot.

"You can't be hot." She said after a moment. "You're lips are blue."

"'M still _hot_. Too hot." He said, wriggling.

Kyoko was confused for a moment as to what he was doing until it became apparent that he was trying to undo the jackets. She quickly grabbed his hands.

"No!"

"Wha'? _Why?_" he whined.

"Um..." Kyoko stalled, trying to think of a reason that she knew would make Sho keep the jackets on, "Because...I'm cold." She said eventually, "And you're keeping me warm."

Sho huffed but relented. "F'ne." He slurred before his eyes closed once again.

---/---

The storm had finally stopped completely.

Ren looked up into the sky, unable to believe that only a few hours ago he had been unable to see a few feet in front of him – and now it was practically fine!

The change in weather was good for another thing though, he could now get a call through to Lory.

The phone hadn't even finished ringing once when Maria answered.

"Kyoko?!"

Ren felt a flash of guilt rush through him at the tears he could hear in her voice.

"It's Ren."

"Ren!" Maria cried, "We were so worried! We were trapped and didn't know where you were! Is Kyoko there? Is she alright?"

Ren licked his lips. "Maria, could you put the President on the phone?"

There was silence on the other end for a moment. "O-ok." Maria said in a small voice.

Ren listened to the shuffling before Lory answered. "Ren?" he asked, "Is everything ok?"

"No." Ren said, his throat thick with guilt and grief, "No it isn't."

"It's ok Ren," Lory said understandingly, "Just tell me what happened."

After fully explaining what had occurred the day before, Ren was relieved to note that Lory didn't mention anything about his part he played at all, instead he was focused more on trying to find a way down the mountain so that he could meet up with Ren.

"Don't worry, Ren." He said, "I'll sort this out."

---/---

Kyoko was tired.

Sho had fallen unconscious a few minutes ago but she just couldn't bring up the energy to wake him again. She could feel the cold now and she had begun to shake badly.

In her daze, she had thought it slightly amusing that she had begun shivering only after Sho had stopped.

The outside of the cave they were resting in was white, and it took a few minutes for Kyoko to realise that it had stopped snowing. She felt a little glad, because there was more of a chance that they could be found now.

Surely _someone _was looking for them?

She had the thought that maybe she should go outside and try to attract attention with her ski jacket, but the thought of moving all that way exhausted her even more. Instead she curled into Sho's body more, wrapping her arms tighter around his chest and trying to still herself.

She could here Sho's rapid heartbeat from where she was resting her head against his chest, his shallow breaths hardly moving her, slowly lulling her into sleep.

She was so tired, and so cold and she just wanted to rest. To wake up and find herself back in her own bed.

Through half-lidded eyes she stared at Sho.

He looked so peaceful. And she wanted that peace too. Slowly, she levered herself up and placed a chaste kiss on his unresponsive lips.

As she closed her eyes and rested her head back on his chest to hear his heart, she tried to convince herself that that wasn't a goodbye.

---/---

There were voices, but they were muffled.

Kyoko forced her eyes open, her vision was assaulted but yellow blurs. They were speaking to her...

...or was it at her?

She couldn't tell.

She could hear words like '_Hypothermia'_, '_Profound', 'Severe' _and '_Dead'. _

Their voices were harmonious and when they touched her face and neck they brought warmth.

Kyoko smiled to herself. Maybe dying wasn't so bad if she could be warm again.

She relaxed as they lay her out on something hard and started to move.

_Everything would be fine_, she thought, before she slipped back into unconsciousness.

---/---

Ren was nervously pacing in front of the cabin.

It had been a couple of hours since he had called Lory and more than half a day since the rescue workers set out.

He was distracted from his pacing at the sight of Lory driving over to them on a snowmobile that he had found from somewhere. Ren wasn't going to question the hows and whys that allowed Lory to always manage to pull something like this out of the hat in an hour of need.

He was just grateful.

"Ren." Lory rushed over to him and pulled him into a hug. "Have you heard anything?"

"No, I –" Ren started to say, but was swiftly interrupted by the sound of the coordinators walky-talky blaring into life.

Both Ren and Lory watched with increasing concern as the man answered the call with a swift reply in Italian before turning to face Ren and Lory.

"My team have found your friends. They are alive at the moment, though my medic says that he doesn't hold out much hope for one of them. They're bringing them down now and will be swiftly transferred to the nearest hospital.

"You're welcome to follow them."

"Thank you." Lory replied, keeping a tight grip on Ren's shoulder to stop him from rushing off now that he knew that they were found.

The worker nodded before turning to Ren with a stern look. "Next time, don't take inexperience skiers up on runs you can't handle."

Ren looked down, shame washing through him. He thought that Lory would comment on it but Lory just nodded to the worker and dragged Ren away.

"Come on Kuon," Lory murmured quietly into his ear, "We should head over to the hospital, I doubt that the doctors will let us see them until they've been stabilised but it will be warmer waiting for them there then out here."

Ren nodded and followed his mentor, vowing to make up for what he had done to both Kyoko _and_ Sho when they got better.

* * *

**Another longish chapter.**

**Now that that's finished I'm going to bed. :)**

**Thoughts?**

**DS**


	14. Monday 14th

**Sigh.**

**My story now has Actual Plot.**

**This is sad because Actual Plot means Actual Work and less fun times screwing with the characters :(**

**Also short chapter as mostly EVERYTHING happens tomorrow.**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 14th – 11 days to go

* * *

Ren and Lory had spent the night waiting in the hospital.

Unfortunately, the doctors had been rushed off their feet treating everyone from the neighbouring resorts who also got caught in the storm.

When the doctor finally had arrived to update them on Kyoko's status they found that he couldn't speak a word of English, never mind Japanese. Thus they had to wait for a translator so they could find out just what was happening.

It was immensely frustrating and Ren was having a hard time keeping still, having taken to pacing the length of the waiting room, his hands clenched by his sides.

Around midmorning Kanae, Maria and Yashiro turned up, each looking rumpled and worried.

Ren's agitation had only increased with every hour that the translator didn't show up, so he wasn't in the best of moods to deal with Yashiro.

A stern look from Lory had him swallowing his sharp remark at Yashiro's state of dress.

Yashiro noticed his aborted comment and Ren saw him blank his face.

"Have you heard anything?" Kanae asked Lory, a hint of desperation in her tone.

"No, unfortunately," Lory sighed and rubbed his hand over his face, "The Doctor did come but there was a slight language issue. We're still waiting on the translator turning up so we can find out what's happening."

Kanae kicked the seat she was standing next to. "Damn it!" She cried, "Why does this always have to happen?"

There was silence as the group settled down to wait, for how could they answer that?

---/---

It wasn't until lunch that a doctor arrived that could speak with them.

"Kyoko Mogami?"

The L.M.E. group all looked up at the tired sounding doctor before clustering around him.

"Is she alright?"

"How's she doing?"

"What's wrong with her?"

"How long does she have to be in here?"

"What treatments are you performing?"

"She's not going to die, is she?"

The doctor's eyes widened at the sudden onslaught of questions and he subconsciously took a step back.

"Please, speak slower. I will explain all."

Lory quietened down the group with a look when they all seemed to want to ask the questions again to get some answers.

The doctor nodded towards him in thanks.

"Ms. Mogami has suffered from severe hypothermia, chilblains and frost nip. Fortunately she was found before it turned into frostbite. She is very lucky."

"What's being done?" Lory asked before anyone else could fire a question at the doctor.

"So far we've been warming her up, making her breathe heated air to help warm from the inside. We're also immersing her in a warm bath to increase the blood flow to her extremities as well as treating her chilblains and blisters."

"When will she be released?"

"We want to keep her here overnight tonight for observation, but if everything is fine and we're happy about the progress she's made then we'll see about releasing her."

"Really? She'll be released tomorrow?" Maria asked.

The doctor frowned, not wanting to commit to anything. "If we're happy with the progress she's made and we deem her satisfactory then yes. But not until."

Lory picked up Maria and settled her on her hip, effectively comforting her.

"Thank you Doctor," he said.

The doctor nodded once towards them all then started to turn and walk away.

"Doctor!" Ren interrupted, ignoring the quizzical glances that the rest of the group shot at him, "How is the boy that was brought in with her? How's Sho doing?"

The doctors face blanked, but he shifted uncomfortably. "I'm sorry, but I can't divulge that information."

"I just want to know if he's ok!"

"I'm sorry." The doctor said, but the way he held himself told Ren that it wasn't good news at all. He felt the growing pit of guilt in his stomach spread.

---/---

After the doctor had left the tension in the room had increased dramatically.

This was all due to the fact that Ren and Yashiro were sitting next to each other, shifting every so often so that they wouldn't come into contact with each other.

Ren was especially high strung, his nerves frazzled and the guilt growing he was teetering on the very edge.

Everyone seemed to know this and they kept quiet, hoping not to cause Ren to turn his attention onto them.

Unfortunately this had the side effect of making them even more uncomfortable and irritable. So it was to a fairly explosive atmosphere that Yashiro sighed and rubbed his hand over his face.

"I hate this," he said, "I hate waiting."

"And you think we don't?" Ren asked, finally having someone to vent his built up frustration on.

"No. I didn't say that. I just said that I hated waiting." Yashiro said calmly.

"What do _you_ know about _waiting_?"

Yashiro gritted his teeth. "I don't think that's relevant. I'm just saying that I'm worried about Kyoko."

"And you think we _aren't_?"

"For God's sake!" Kanae burst out, interrupting their semi-argument. "Kyoko's in a hospital! She's injured and we hardly know anything or when she'll be able to go home!

"You're acting like children!" She glared at them, "Both of you. Now, sit down, shut up and focus more on Kyoko then your own _petty arguments_!"

There was silence as the occupants of the room just looked at Kanae who was standing by now and breathing heavily, like she had just sprinted. Her hands were clenched into fists by her sides and her shoulders were tense with anger and frustration.

Failing to get herself under complete control she snarled and help out her hand. "Come on Maria, I'll take you to get something to eat at the cafeteria."

Maria docilely took her hand and let Kanae led her out of the room. Before they left though Kanae turned back around and shot a glare at Ren and Yashiro.

"Get over yourselves."

Ren sat, taken by surprise by Kanae's outburst.

Despite this he couldn't bring himself to wait any longer. He needed to _do _something. Anything. He couldn't think about what was happening.

Without saying anything he stood and walked out of the room. He wasn't hungry so he was going to walk the corridors, hoping to clear his head.

---/---

Lory and Yashiro watched Ren leave.

"You know," Yashiro said after a few moments, "It's obvious that he hates me."

Lory turned to look at the manager. "Hate you? I wouldn't go so far as that."

Yashiro laughed bitterly. "He does." He said, "You can see it in his eyes. And he certainly doesn't trust me, you can't argue with that."

Lory made a non-committal noise, not liking how this conversation seemed to be playing out.

"I-I've been thinking..." Yashiro said hesitantly, "I think I'm going to have to resign as Ren's manager."

"What?!" Lory asked, surprised.

"He doesn't trust me and I won't be able to do my job properly because of that. I won't be able to push him to the best of his abilities."

"That's not all you do..." Lory tried to argue.

Yashiro smiled sadly, "I've thought about this a lot over the past few days President Takarada. This is my official resignation."

Lory pressed his lips together, until they were only a fine line. "If that's what you want." He said at last, "But I won't let you leave the company. You're too good a manager for me to let go. When we get back I'll look at candidates for you to work with."

Yashiro bowed his head, hiding the tears that had gathered in the corners of his eyes. He had never expected such a generous offer. "Thank you." He whispered softly.

---/---

Ren had taken a wandering path through the various corridors and wards until he had calmed down somewhat. He was about to turn and head back when he saw a familiar looking person sitting on a row of seats and holding a coffee.

It took a moment for Ren to work out who she was as she had her head bent, but when he did the guilt came back.

It was Shoko, Sho's manager.

Ren debated with himself as to whether or not he should go over. She looked almost as bad as he felt.

In the end that was what decided him and he sat down next to her, uninvited.

She looked at him in slight surprise before a flash of recognition passed through her eyes.

"How is he?" Ren asked quietly.

"It's..." she started, clearing her throat when her voice cracked. "It's not looking good. The doctors don't think he's going to last the night.

"They said that he has profound hypothermia and stage two frostbite in his hands and feet.

"They were talking about amputating." She whispered in a small voice, as if unable to understand, "But they managed to warm him up quickly enough that they don't think they need to anymore."

Ren watched as a tear ran slowly down her cheek.

"It was horrible." She said after a while, "He was unconscious, but when they put him in the bath to heat him up he started _screaming_. He wouldn't stop!"

She rubbed harshly at her face. Ren let her talk; it seemed she needed to say this as much as he needed to hear.

"They had to sedate him! And you know what I realised?" she asked harshly, "I realised that this was _all my fault_!"

That took Ren by surprise, "What?" he asked, shocked.

"This trip was supposed to be a surprise present, for being booked on a world tour. It was supposed to be a celebration! It was my idea! If I hadn't thought of it he wouldn't be here! He wouldn't be lying in that hospital bed, sedated because he _couldn't stop screaming_!"

"It's not your fault..." Ren tried to placate her, but she brushed him off.

"It's kind of you to say but it really is. And now I have to live with the consequences." Her voice broke on the last word and she stood up abruptly. "I'm sorry," she apologised, "I have to...have to go."

Ren watched as she walked down the corridor, the guilt he was feeling threatening to suffocate him. Could he ever make this right?

* * *

**You see? This is what happens when I bring plot into it – things get Angsty.**

**That's it. Next chapter will have a clown. **

**No fic can be angst with added clown. Horror maybe, but not angst.**

**DS**


	15. Tuesday 15th

**So...I'm tired. And I have to get ready for a funeral tomorrow morning so I've cut what I had planned for this chapter in half so I can get some sleep.**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 15th – 10 days to go

* * *

Kanae had been waiting for this for two days now. She was finally getting to see Kyoko since she had been brought in.

Kanae wasn't a fantasising sort of person but during the long hours of last night she had been thinking about how Kyoko would react when they finally met up again.

It was to imagined smiles that Kanae opened the door that lunch time.

She had _not_ imagined Kyoko to be staring in horrified curiosity at a clown at the bottom of her bed.

Kanae's eyes widened. She was debating whether to turn and just leave when the door shut behind her frozen form with a loud click and the clown turned to look at her.

Kanae swallowed, _don't let it see the fear in your eye, _she thought to herself.

The clown beckoned her over, speaking in rapid Italian. Kanae edged around it until she was standing by Kyoko, who was propped up on a mound of pillows.

"Kyoko." Kanae hissed quietly. "What is _that?_"

"It's a clown." Kyoko hissed back, shooting a look at Kanae that told the other girl that she thought she was slightly stupid for not knowing.

Kanae went to roll her eyes at Kyoko's idiotic-ness when the clown flourished a bouquet of fake flowers under her nose.

_Rule One_, she thought, _NEVER take eyes off the clown_.

Hesitantly she took the flowers, trying to suppress the shivers of horror at being so close.

The clown beamed at her and said something else in Italian.

Kanae thought it looked like it wanted to eat her face.

"What's it _doing_ here?" She asked quietly.

"It's for the kids ward," Kyoko said, tilting her head – as if it would make the balloon animal shape make more sense. "My door was open and it saw me on its way past.

"It came here to cheer me up."

"They send _clowns_ to the kids?" Kanae asked horrified, "Why would they _do _that?"

Kyoko shrugged. "Some people find them funny."

Kanae shivered and pressed back a little further against the wall she was leaning against. A thought made her frown. "Hey, hang on a moment. How do you know all that? You don't speak Italian."

Kyoko just looked at her, "Well what else would it be doing here?" She asked, "Unless it was really a murderer that was scoping out the weakest patients so he knows which to target first when he goes on a mad killing spree tonight."

There was a pause as both girls thought over what Kyoko had just said.

"Oh my God." Kanae said a little faintly.

Kyoko nodded in agreement with wide eyes, "Yeah, I think I just crept myself out with that."

The clown made one last grand flourish and bowed.

Kyoko, whose upbringing had taught her that politeness was key in any situation, clapped as the clown walked out the door, leaving an array of balloon animals behind him.

Kanae let out a breath of relief and collapsed in the chair by Kyoko's bed.

"Let's hope you get out of here by tonight, eh?"

---/---

Kanae had talked with Kyoko for over an hour about what had been happening whilst she was stuck on the mountain. After that though, both of them were _extremely_ bored.

Really, there's nothing much to do in a hospital room.

Eventually, after five minutes of looking around the room, Kanae picked up the remote control.

"Oh hey, look! We could watch T.V.!" She said brightly.

"Yeah!" Kyoko responded with equal enthusiasm.

They both settled down facing the television, glad that they now had something to take their minds off the boredom.

The first channel had a programme about clowns. Kanae pressed the button to change it so hard that the remote gave an ominous crack. She ignored Kyoko's look of disbelief.

"What?" she asked defensively. "I think we've both had enough of clowns for today. Oh look!" she said distracting Kyoko, "You're on T.V.!"

"Kanae," Kyoko said slowly, "I'm an _actress_. Of _course_ I'm on the television."

Kanae glared at her. "No. I meant that you're on television here."

Kyoko turned swiftly to look at the T.V. where, sure enough, it had pictures of Kyoko and Sho being loaded up into the ambulance and driven off.

"I didn't even know there were camera crews there." Kyoko said.

Kanae shrugged. "Well, it was a pretty big snowstorm and you two were the only ones lost in it. It was probably just a local news team but when they realised who you were it got sold on to the bigger stations."

"...It sometimes scares me how much you know."

"Hey!" Kanae said defensively, "I _have_ to know these things. This is my livelihood we're talking about."

Kyoko sighed, "Oh! They're saying something! Turn it up."

Kanae gave her a weird look but did as she was told, immediately rapid Italian filled the room. Kyoko stared at the screen for a moment.

"That was a little stupid of me, wasn't it?" she asked.

"Yes." Kanae said shortly and turned the volume down again.

"So what do you think they're saying?"

Kanae studied the small pictures that were being shown to the right of the drama. "Well, I think they're explaining who you are...and what you're working on. Look, that's a media picture of Dark Moon.

"Oh! And there's Sho. Hey! I didn't realise he had a song on that soundtrack. Did you know?"

"...He may have mentioned something along the lines, yes."

Kanae turned back to the screen again. "Aaaaaaand...that's the shot of you when they found you. Ooooh. That's embarrassing."

Kyoko groaned and covered her face with her hands. "I can't believe I looked like that!"

"Well," Kanae said slowly, "You had been trapped on a mountain for two days."

"You think that the audience back home will forgive me for looking like that then?"

"No."

Kyoko groaned again.

"You've just got to hope that they never find this piece of footage _ever._"

"...That's never going to happen is it?"

"...No."

"Is there even a good side to this?!" Kyoko asked exasperatedly.

"Um..." Kanae thought, "You probably made the local station very rich when they sold this piece of embarrassing and career destroying footage."

Kyoko turned to her best friend. "I hate you, you know that right."

Kanae grinned.

---/---

It wasn't until Kyoko was eating her tea that the Doctor showed up and started checking her over, marking things down on her chart.

"So, Doctor, do you know when she can get out of here?" Kanae asked.

The doctor looked over the notes again. "Well, it seems that Ms. Mogami has responded well to the treatments," he flipped a page, "and that there were no complications last night."

"What does that mean?" Kyoko asked.

"I mean that I don't see why you can't leave here without the proper instructions." The doctor turned to Kanae, "If you could contact your guardian and tell him to ask for me then I will give him instructions on how to handle Ms. Mogami's care."

Kanae nodded, "I'll do that."

The doctor smiled at Kyoko. "I hope to not see you again, Ms. Mogami. And do try to take care on the mountains the next time you are up there."

Kyoko nodded and watched as he left the room.

"Well," Kanae said, "that was easier than I expected."

"Don't jinx it!"

Kanae grinned. "I'll go phone President Takarada now."

---/---

It was barely an hour later that Kyoko found herself packed and ready to go.

"I've booked rooms at the hotel near here for tonight." Lory explained as he ushered them through the corridors, Kyoko being wheeled along by Kanae because it was painful for her to walk.

Kyoko looked at him in confusion.

"I didn't think it was a good idea to go straight back up the mountain to the mansion." Lory said, "If something went wrong then it would take a long time to get you back here. Your safety is my number one concern right now.

"So for tonight we'll stay near the hospital and then we'll move back home tomorrow."

Kyoko nodded. "Thank you."

Lory chuckled. "It's no problem Kyoko-chan. Just think of the paperwork if you died!"

* * *

**Well...I got the clown in at least.**

**And it was more fun to write than yesterdays.**

**Thoughts?**

**DS**


	16. Wednesday 16th

**Today was tiring. Very, very tiring.**

**And Sho! Oh God, Sho...I don't know what I'm going to do with him.**

**Well, actually I do...sort of...you're not going to find out for a while though :P**

**Short chapter and probably going to be unfunny as well. I can't bring myself to write something funny just after a funeral.**

**And yes, you do eat Tea! It's the main afternoon meal. You drink tea, but you eat Tea...**

**Ok...now I can see why someone **_**not**_** from Great Britain would get confused at that...but look! It has a capital letter! That means that it's a **_**meal**_**. And hey, you learn something new every day. Think of it as some random trivial from GB.**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 16th – 9 days to go

* * *

It hurt to walk.

It hurt to walk _so_ much, but Kyoko filed away the pain, repeating to herself the lessons that Sho's mother taught her when she was younger.

_Don't let anyone see the pain, the first priority is the customer._

True, Kanae wasn't a customer, but she _was_ a friend and as such Kyoko didn't want her worrying over a little pain.

She had worried enough over the past few days because of her. Kyoko still felt guilt at the thought.

It was _she_ who put that shadow in Kanae's eyes. It was she who had made Maria even clingier than she ever had been before.

And she felt absolutely terrible about it, which made it easier to hide the guilt and the pain she was in.

She sighed in relief as she sank into the deep tub, the warm water easing some of the aches and pains from her joints, especially in her hands and feet. Sometime she would need to speak with Kanae as thinking about everything just made her worry.

But she couldn't right now as Kanae and Lory had taken Maria back up to the mansion to get some more supplies and arranging the staff that were currently there and they wouldn't be coming back until later tonight.

She _needed_ to know how Sho was doing.

He may have been an ass to her, but she couldn't deny the bonds they had made growing up. As much as it rankled her to admit, they had been childhood friends. Rivals. Sho had been her first love for God's sake. And yes, he had used her and broken her heart...but he had also taken the brunt of the storm for her, sheltering her.

She knew without a doubt that she owed him her life.

She just didn't know how she should feel about that.

A part of her still wanted to see his blood for the pain he had put her through...

But another part was arguing with her. It was small but steadily gaining in volume.

_Sho had saved her life._

_**But Sho destroyed the life she had had, that's why she had followed the path of revenge in the first place.**_

_But she wasn't really after revenge now, was she? The path she had taken had diverged and now she was doing this for herself, to make herself a better person. She was someone she liked now, someone that could stand on their own two feet without depending solely on anyone else. Sho had given her that._

_**Sho didn't deserve forgiveness. **_

_Sho had asked for forgiveness and she had granted it. _

The poisonous voice in the back of her mind fell silent. And that's all there was too it, Kyoko supposed.

Sho had asked, and she had given.

She refused to believe it was because she was falling back into her old ways – doing everything he asked of her. That wasn't it _at all_.

She had had the choice, she could have refused him.

But when it came right down to it, she didn't _want_ to. And she wanted to believe that it was a mark on how much she had grown and developed as a person that, when faced with all she had ever wanted – namely Sho begging for her forgiveness – she had cast aside her petty thoughts of revenge and done something that would give another person a sense of peace, even if she wasn't entirely certain that he deserved complete forgiveness straight away.

Kyoko wondered if Sho realised just what exactly she had given him.

She smiled to herself when she then realised that it didn't matter to her if he did.

---/---

Yashiro was tired.

He had spent the past week or so being on the receiving end of Ren's continuous bad temper.

_Sure_, that might not_ sound_ so bad...especially when told that it was the silent treatment. But Ren had a way of making you feel so _small_ when he looked at you and even smaller when he didn't.

It was in the way he held himself, the tenseness that appeared when someone he didn't like got close to him. The way that tenseness melted into something liquid – the way Yashiro had only ever seen trained fighters do – like he is preparing to lash out at any provocation.

It was in the way he smiled politely at you, instead of glaring or yelling.

It lulled you into a false sense of security. Made you think he had forgiven you when really the bad feelings were festering and growing.

It was when he was more _Ren_ than anyone else that you really had to watch your back.

Because Ren only acted completely _Ren_ when he was struggling to hide who he really was.

The darkness inside him that he struggled to contain.

Yashiro swallowed at the thought. It had taken Ren this long to finally get himself under control. To enforce _Ren_ so much that the man was practically walking on ice.

It scared Yashiro how long Ren had taken to do this. Either Ren was slipping or Yashiro had betrayed Ren so badly that the man had struggled for days to bring a modicum of sanity and reason back to himself.

If that was the case then Yashiro didn't even want to think about how close he had come to death.

And Yashiro had no problem in thinking that the man Ren was trying to hide beneath that mask of his could do something like that if provoked enough.

But that was neither here nor there. The problem at hand was that Yashiro was tired.

Tired of the charade he had made himself put on, tired of being treated like something on the bottom of a shoe.

Yashiro was going to explain himself – tell Ren everything.

And if Ren still wanted him to go after that...then he would go knowing that he had done everything in his power, short of begging, to right the situation he found himself in.

He would not beg. Begging would imply that he thought what he did was wrong, that he thought Ren was right in acting the way he was and ignoring his feelings. And that wasn't correct at all.

Traversing the hallway of the corridor, Yashiro used the spare key card Lory had given him to get into Ren's room.

Ren was standing by the window, looking out into the light snowfall. He looked pensive, but Yashiro didn't linger on it – he wanted to start to explain before Ren realised and tried to throw him out.

"I'm not trying to steal Kyoko-chan." Yashiro said quietly. Noting how Ren startled and turned around to face him, his face falling into the polite, blank mask of _Ren_ once again.

"It's just..." Yashiro started again, taking an abortive step forward, "I got fed up!"

Ren raised an eyebrow coolly and Yashiro gritted his teeth as he was made to feel like a fool _again_.

"You wouldn't just accept your feelings. Wouldn't accept that there could _be_ feelings!"

"That's because there isn't."

"But there are!" Yashiro practically yelled. "You don't want to admit them because you're unsure on how you're supposed to act!"

Ren narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying that I'm _scared_?"

"Yes." Yashiro lifted his chin, refusing to back down on this. "Yes, I think you are. You know you have feelings – _others_ know you have feelings, yet you refuse to act on them. There can be no other conclusion."

Ren hissed and took a step forward.

Yashiro _really _wanted to run, but to get out the door he'd have to turn his back on Ren...and that was _not_ an option right now.

"I'll have you _know_, that I am _not_ a _coward_."

"Yet you won't look at what's right in front of you." Yashiro said in a whisper. "I was only trying to show you that."

Ren froze.

Yashiro, knowing he was pressing his luck, continued. "The only reason I acted like that, was because it was the only way I could come up with that would make you look at the situation properly.

"I just wanted you to realise that if you keep hesitating then you're going to lose. And you'll regret that for the rest of your life."

"There's no way – " Ren tried to deny.

"I know _you_ Ren."

Ren took a step back. Yashiro watched as the watery light coming through the window highlighted his silhouette, throwing his face into shadow.

"You had to see for yourself that it was so easy to lose." Yashiro sighed when Ren didn't reply. "I knew this would happen." He made a vague gesture between them. "I knew that there was a possibility that I was going to ruin everything that we had. And I did, I know that.

"But I'm not completely sorry for it Ren, because there's a small part of me that knows that it'll get through to you."

Yashiro waited again, watching for any movement that would signal that Ren had understood. There was none. After a few moments Yashiro turned and opened the door, feeling it was safe to do so.

"I've handed in my resignation. As soon as we touchdown in Japan I will no longer be your manager."

The silence was only broken by the soft click as the door closed behind him.

* * *

**Sometimes, you have to forgive someone, even if you haven't fully worked out if they deserve it or not.****Because one day you'll realise that it's not their supposed transgressions that are holding you back – it's your own pride. **

**Sometimes it feels damn good to take the moral high ground.**

**I wanted Kyoko to grow. _Ren_ on the other hand...**

**DS**


	17. Thursday 17th

**I inspired myself three times last chapter. Three! Gah!**

**Wow – this month is going by pretty fast isn't it? I mean, it's already the 17****th****?**

**Also! I am pleased as today it snowed! Finally! Has it snowed where you are yet?**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 17th – 8 days to go

* * *

Kanae had arrived back late last night when Kyoko had already gone to bed, still exhausted by the events of the past week. But now she was re-energized and had Kanae right where she wanted her.

Namely in her room.

"Kanae," Kyoko asked quietly, "have you heard anything about Sho?"

Kanae grimaced slightly and turned her head to face the wall, not wanting to meet her friend's eyes. Kyoko felt her heart speed up at the lack of answer and lack of denial.

"Kanae?" she asked again, _needing_ to know.

"There was..." Kanae started, swallowing sharply. "That is...the doctors wouldn't really tell us much because we weren't family or his _guardians_."

Kyoko's eyes widened, "What does that mean?"

"I – I don't really know," Kanae admitted after a while, "I mean, I don't think he's dead..."

Kyoko's face paled and the room seemed to tilt slightly.

Kanae, seeing her friend was about to pass out, rushed forward and helped lay her down on the bed.

"W-what?" Kyoko asked shakily, "Was he really that bad?"

Kanae bit her lip. "Kyoko," she said eventually, "when I first saw you, you were in a bad shape. And I mean _really_ bad.

"And we all know that Sho was so much worse off than you..." she trailed off, not knowing how to really say what she was thinking.

Kyoko seemed to get it though, by the helplessness that washed over her face as she closed her eyes. "So, you think he's d-d..."

"No!" Kanae protested vehemently, "I mean, I'm pretty sure that he's not. There would be news stories about it and I haven't seen any so far..."

"News stories." Kyoko said dully.

Kanae shifted uncomfortably before giving up any pretences and lying next to Kyoko on the bed and staring at the ceiling. "Well, you were big news." She said dryly, "If there was any chance that one of you...took a turn for the worse...then I'm pretty sure that the media would jump on that."

"Why would they _do_ that?"

"It's publicity. Death and natural disasters get more space because destruction sells, and that's what the media is after in the end – a profit."

Kyoko wanted to cry, she could feel the tears pricking at the back of her eyes and her throat was clogged up. Kanae patted her on the arm.

"If you wanted, we could ask President Takarada and see if he knows anything. Lord knows the man seems to collect information like this."

Kyoko sat up, her eyes bright. "Do you think he would know anything?"

Kanae just shrugged, "There's a chance."

---/---

Unfortunately, when the girls cornered Lory in the hotel restaurant, he didn't know anymore than they did.

"I'm sorry girls. But I haven't been keeping up to date with all the things here. I've been focusing on Kyoko and sorting out the mansion. Not to mention there seems to be a bit of an uproar back home about something that is being shown on news channels that I need to try and sort out before it gets blown out of all proportions."

"So, you really don't know anything?" Kyoko asked, upset.

Lory paused, then reached out and patted Kyoko on her wrist, mindful of her freshly bandaged hands.

"I'm sorry Kyoko-chan, but no. I don't. But, if I may ask, why do you want to know so badly? I thought you didn't really get along with Fuwa-san."

Kyoko opened her mouth to reply when she realised that she had nothing to say. She _hadn't _liked Sho very much before all this. But then the incident on the mountain where they had both thought they were going to die but Sho wouldn't let her give up hope, always trying to protect her...

And the ease at which she had forgiven him once she had truly weighed up her options...

And the way she had kissed him, even if she wasn't entirely sure that he had been conscious for it.

She ducked her head, looking at the table she was sitting at. She knew all this, but she didn't want anyone else to know _just_ yet. It was her own secret, and she was still unsure about just what exactly her feelings were towards him.

She just knew that she needed to know.

Kyoko sat silently, her head bowed and it hurt Lory to see her like this – so obviously distressed over someone. She had grown, he knew this.

He also knew that _this_ was the reason she was in the Love Me section in the first place.

With that thought he smiled brightly. "Don't worry too much, Kyoko-chan. I've decided that we shall _phone_ the hospital to inquire as to his whereabouts and health!"

"Will they let you do that?" Kanae asked, a little sceptical.

Lory turns wide eyes on her and she quickly realised her mistake. "I mean," she said, holding her hands up, "that sounds like a plan! What are we doing still sitting here then?"

---/---

The group quickly found a phone that they could use in the reception. However, the hospital wasn't forthcoming at all about how Sho was doing. Lory had even tried to explain in broken Italian just why he was phoning but they still wouldn't budge.

It had gotten to the point that even Lory had to concede that they weren't going to get _any_ information this way.

Kyoko looked almost heartbroken at the news, which only served to strengthen Lory's resolve.

"Well," he said decisively, "this means that we'll just have to go to the hospital in person and visit his rooms to find out how he's doing."

"Really? Can we do that?" Kyoko asked, a spark of hope shining in her eyes.

"Of course we can! I'm President Lory Takarada!"

"I don't think it works like that..." Kanae muttered under her breath.

"Do you hear that Moko?"

"I heard." Kanae agreed.

"Are you coming then?"

Kanae wanted to say 'No', because of the bad memories she had from that place but one look in Kyoko's eyes and she was a goner. "Yeah, I'll come."

_Besides_, she tried to reason with herself, _Kyoko might need some support if it isn't good news_.

---/---

They arrived at the hospital within the next hour and Kyoko really wanted to run in and just demand answers, but she couldn't run in her condition. It hurt just to walk!

So instead she had to hold in until she got to the receptionist at the front desk.

"Excuse me," she asked politely, "I'm looking for Sho Fuwa's room."

The receptionist just looked at her apologetically and said something in Italian.

In despair Kyoko turned to look at Lory, who quickly took over the reins, questioning the receptionist in his broken Italian again.

Kyoko, feeling tired all of a sudden, went to sit down on the hard plastic seats that lined the wall. Kanae sitting down beside her to keep her company.

"Do you think everything will be ok?" Kyoko asked quietly, not daring to look at her friend.

Kanae took a moment to answer. "I'm sure everything will turn out fine in the end." She said, reaching out and gently clasping Kyoko's hand.

"I hope we can get Sho's room number."

Kanae rolled her eyes, "I'm sure we will, after all, we have President Lory Takarada on our side."

Kyoko chuckled and Kanae thought it was a job well done to be able to elicit any positive emotion from Kyoko right now.

The atmosphere wasn't to last however, when Lory turned back to face them with a grave expression.

Kyoko's breath hitched in her throat. "Oh God," she whispered, "What is it?"

"I don't know." Kanae whispered back, worriedly.

"Girls." Lory said seriously, kneeling down until he could look them in the eye as they sat. "I'm afraid I have some bad news.

"I was talking to the receptionist and it seems that they have no record of a Sho Fuwa at this hospital. When I asked them to check back they receptionist only said that he had 'departed'."

"But," Kanae said, "That's _impossible_! We know he was brought here! The doctor wouldn't tell us anything!"

"Yes," Lory sighed, "yes, I know."

"Then why wouldn't he be registered..." Kyoko started to ask before the realisation hit her and her eyes widened. "You mean...? _Departed_? He could be...?"

"It's a possibility," Lory said. "I'm so sorry Kyoko."

"But it can't be! I refuse to believe it! Sho can't be _dead_!" Tears began to fall down her cheeks, "It _can't_ be true!"

"Kyoko." Kanae whispered, wrapping her arms around her friend's shoulders.

Kyoko broke down in the arms of her best friend.

---/---

It seemed to take less time to get back to the hotel than it took to get to the hospital.

The journey was long enough to cry herself out in though. As the tears dried on her cheeks she sat silently in the back, doing nothing but staring out of the window at the steadily darkening horizon.

Eventually, the hotel pulled into view and the occupants of the car just sat for a moment, looking at it.

"Kyoko..." Kanae started to say.

"I think I'm going to go to bed." Kyoko interrupted, her voice dull.

Kanae pressed her lips together but made no move to argue with her. "Do you need any help?" She asked instead.

Kyoko shook her head and opened the door of the car. "I just want to be alone right now."

Kanae and Lory watched as Kyoko made her way slowly up the front steps of the hotel and through the door.

"I'll stay with her tomorrow." Kanae told Lory.

"I think that would be a good idea."

Kanae nodded and opened her own door. "Thank you for taking us, Sir."

Lory watched as she followed the same path Kyoko had just taken. "You really shouldn't be thanking me." Lory mumbled to the empty car before he got out too.

* * *

**I was going to finally address and finish off the whole Sho thing today...**

**Then I thought that I'd leave you hanging for one more day :P**

**It's 'cos I'm evil like that.**

**Thoughts?**

**DS**


	18. Friday 18th

**Snooooooooooooooooooow!**

**A week! Christmas is a week today! How awesome is that? Er...unless you don't celebrate Christmas...then it's just a happy festive time for you.**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 18th – 7 days to go

* * *

Despite leaving the others early last night, Kyoko didn't manage to catch a wink of sleep last night.

The morning dawned late, the suns weak rays barely managing to puncture through the cloud cover that hung low in the sky. Kyoko ignored the sight from her window, instead pulling the covers more securely around her shoulders and settling back into position – her arms wrapped around her knees.

Sho...

Sho had been on her mind all night. Ever since she, Kanae and President Takarada had visited the hospital late yesterday afternoon and found that Sho was no longer there...

The look in the President's eyes when he told her the news immediately made her think the worst. After all, what else _could_ it be?

She picked absentmindedly at the bandages covering her hands, wearing down the edges until they frayed beneath her fingers.

Sho was gone. That was all she could think about.

There was guilt as well. An overwhelming amount - considering her past with him. The main thought that turned over and over in her mind was the thought that she would never see him again. The only time that she would see him would be in her memories.

She felt a tear slide down her cheek but couldn't gather the energy to wipe it away.

'_What if'_s?' soon followed.

What if she had forgiven him sooner? Could they have spent more time together before he disappeared from her life? What if Ren had never taken them on that run? Would Sho still be gone? What if _she_ had something to do with it? Could she have changed something so that everything would be better?

And the final and most important one of all...

What if Sho had been too far gone to hear her forgive him?

What if Sho had died still thinking that she hated him for a stupid childish mistake?

She wanted to tell him everything – that it would all be ok. But she never could, and she never would be able to now.

Another few tears fell from her eyes when she realised this.

It was too late now, and all she had left were regrets and a second chance that would never come to pass.

"Kyoko!" A loud bang on the door following the muffled shout startled Kyoko out of her depressing thoughts. She carefully made her way over to the door and opened it.

"Moko?" She asked, confused at the wild look in Kanae's eyes.

"Kyoko! Oh my God – you have to see this!"

Kanae reached out and pulled Kyoko from the room and tried to drag her down the hall until Kyoko stumbled and brought them both to a standstill.

"Moko." Kyoko wheezed through gritted teeth, "I still can't walk properly. And I haven't got my key. _And I'm still in my pyjamas!_"

Kanae had the decency to look sheepish. "Whoops! But hurry up – it's _madness_ down there."

Kyoko, curious as to just _what_ had caught her friend's attention, got ready as fast as she could and re-joined Kanae in the hallway once again.

"Finally!" Kanae said and started to walk over to the lift's at the end of the hallway. "I thought you were going to take _forever_! I hope they haven't gone already..."

"Who haven't gone?" Kyoko asked, stepping into the lift behind her friend. But Kanae wouldn't answer and Kyoko had to be content that it was only a short amount of time that she had to wait for the lift to finish its journey.

There was a small _ding_ as the doors opened and Kyoko took a step out.

"Ok, Moko. What did you want to sh–" Kyoko trailed off when she looked out the front glass doors.

"That."

"Holy..." Kyoko said, unable to believe her eyes. Immediately outside the doors there were a row of policemen and women, creating a human shield. Beyond that was a crowd of reporters and television crew all jockeying for a better position and shot into the lobby.

When they caught sight of Kyoko they seemed to recognise her immediately and surged forward en masse. The police had a hard time of holding them back.

Kyoko took a step behind Kanae and stared at the crowd with wide eyes.

"What are...?" She asked.

"Media." Said Kanae with an awed look on her face. "There are a few television crews from Japan, and a few crews from local stations that are working as proxies to the Japanese channels that couldn't send their own crew out.

"Then there are the reporters...I don't know where they're from..."

"Why are they _here_?" Kanae asked, "And how do you_ know these things_?"

"They're here for you."

"What?" Kyoko hissed.

"Kyoko," Kanae said slowly, "It's not every day that a celebrity gets trapped on a mountain in a snowstorm and almost dies." She paused, her face darkening, "Well..."

Kyoko became sombre as well.

"As for how I know..." Kanae started again, "I make it my job to know who's who in the Japanese media industry."

"But it isn't entertainment..."

Kanae shrugged. "Just because they're News doesn't mean that they won't ask questions or write articles about you. If you know who they are and a little bit about them then it's easier to charm them."

"You've...thought a lot about this, haven't you?"

"The business is my life." Kanae explained simply.

They stood in silence for a moment, just watching the crowd. All past thoughts completely eradicated by the sight in front of them.

"So what now?" Kyoko asked.

"Dunno, really. You want to go get breakfast?"

"Sounds good."

They were about to turn around and leave when the noise from outside changed and the crowd of media surged away from the doors to somewhere behind them. Kanae and Kyoko's attention was caught and they wondered just what new thing the reporters had spotted.

They didn't have to wait long. Two policemen pushed the reporters back to make way for a couple that were being helped through the crowd.

Kyoko felt her heart stop as she caught sight of platinum blond hair.

_It couldn't be..._

Kanae's shocked gasp beside her confirmed it though. Making his way through the hungry crowd of reporters was none other than a _very_ tired looking Sho Fuwa.

"Oh my God..." Kanae breathed in shock.

Sho stumbled through the door, the only thing keeping him upright seemed to be the tight grip he held on his manager's arm. Kyoko watched as he ran a shaking hand through his hair and grimaced, saying something softly to his manager who replied and nodded.

The Sho looked up and caught Kyoko's eyes. He blinked in shock for a moment before his lips spread in a small smile.

He took a step towards her, reaching out...

"Zombie!" Kyoko screeched pointing at a visibly startled Sho, turning and legging it back towards her room.

Kanae stared after her with wide eyes, as did Sho, Shoko and the rest of the staff and visitors.

"Er..." Kanae said to break them atmosphere. "I'm just gonna..." she made a vague hand gesture in the direction Kyoko had run off in. "Yeah." Then she gave Sho one last weird and disbelieving look before following her friend in a fast walk.

"Sho-kun," Shoko murmured to her singer, "you know some odd people."

---/---

Kanae eventually caught up with Kyoko outside her rooms.

For someone that was still injured, she sure could run fast. Though the look of pain that Kyoko was now sporting had Kanae thinking that was more due to adrenaline than anything else.

The two girls stared at each other for a moment before Kanae couldn't keep it in any longer. "Zombies?" she asked.

Kyoko flinched and looked around wildly.

"You know," Kanae said dryly, "I think its safe."

"You can never be too certain."

"Let's go inside then." Kanae suggested, motioning to the door Kyoko was standing in front of.

Kyoko nodded and dragged her friend inside, all the while keeping an eye out.

Kanae waited until Kyoko had securely locked the door behind her before she crossed her arms, raised an eyebrow and repeated herself. "Zombies?"

"Yeah." Kyoko nodded.

"He didn't look like a zombie to me."

"That's what they _want_ you to think. One moment it's just all – 'Oh, hey Grandma!', the next it's 'Ahhh! Grandma! Why are you eating my brain?!"

Kanae stared at her friend. "Sometimes," she said after a moment, "what goes on in your head scares me."

"It's true!"

"I'm pretty sure that Sho isn't dead. I mean, he might look it right now but that's just because he's been _in the hospital_." She stressed the last point, trying to get it across to Kyoko.

Kyoko just looked sceptical. "It could be a ruse."

Kanae rolled her eyes and tried to go at this conversation logically...as illogical as that sounded. "Ok," she said, "if he _was_ a zombie – why didn't he attack anyone outside for their brains? They were close enough..."

Kyoko thought that through. "Maybe he was luring them with a glamour?"

"_Vampires_ have glamour's...Zombies just eat you."

"Er..." Kyoko couldn't think of an argument.

"_Exactly_." Kanae stressed. "So he's not a zombie. He only looks like one right now."

Kyoko looked like she didn't want to believe her but was willing to be talked away from an oncoming zombie apocalypse.

"But the President said that he was dead!"

Kanae thought about that. "Well," she said slowly, "President Takarada never actually said he was _dead_...just departed.

"I guess there's a good chance that he mis-translated the word."

Kyoko just stared at her friend. "So...all last night?"

Kanae winced in sympathy – it was never good to spend a night thinking that someone you had a close relation to was dead.

Kyoko saw the wince and sagged before Kanae's eyes. Her pale skin became even paler and she started to tilt. Kanae rushed forwards and grabbed her before she could keel over in a dead faint.

"Moko," Kyoko murmured quietly, "I'm really tired..."

"Did you get _any_ sleep last night?" Kanae asked concernedly as she manhandled Kyoko over to the bed.

Kyoko shook her head and Kanae sighed. "Ok then, you should sleep then. We'll go down and get something to eat later."

"Could you stay?" Kyoko asked, snuggling down under the covers.

Kanae looked at her friend then back over to the door. She sighed lightly and climbed onto the bed next to Kyoko. "Sure thing. But you really should rest – I don't want you to get even sicker..." She looked over to find that Kyoko had already fallen asleep and rolled her eyes, crawling under the covers herself.

It was going to be a while before Kyoko woke up again if the dark circles under her eyes said anything.

* * *

**Well...Sho's alive! :D**

**Also...that zombie story is based on a true story – only it involved a spider, a feather and a cup of tea (among other things...) ¬___¬**

**And the conversation afterwards! I had that with a friend. I have the most awesome conversations sometimes XD**

**Thoughts?**

**DS**


	19. Saturday 19th

**I just looked at my notes that I jotted down...and have found out that I have NOTHING.**

**So...what do you want to see happen tomorrow? :D**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 19th – 6 days to go

* * *

Sho was having a hard time.

He still wasn't up to his full strength and it was increasingly painful to walk. Never having been in prolonged pain before, it was wearying.

What he _really_ wanted to do was curl up back in bed with something warm and sleep for a week, maybe take a few more of those painkillers he had in the hospital.

Though, by what Shoko told him about the things he said and did in said hospital...

Maybe he would keep the painkillers for when he was alone and no one could possibly gather blackmail material from him. Because there were a few people who would and _one_ person definitely stuck out in his mind as someone who would take advantage of his vulnerability.

Though, now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen Reino in a few days. That was worrying...but he couldn't focus on what the man may or may not be up to right now because he was already focusing all his attention on trying to find Kyoko.

And his tired brain could not multitask like normal.

He hadn't seen her since yesterday morning when she called him a zombie and ran away.

He hadn't actually thought that he looked that bad but, of course, when he got checked in and looked in his bathroom mirror he could only wince. Okay, so maybe he _had_ looked that bad.

But still...zombie?

That would imply that she thought he was dead.

His heart clenched at the thought. He knew that they didn't have the _best_ of relationships lately...but they did grow up together. To think that someone you knew was dead was always horrible and he hoped that she hadn't truly suffered for it.

_But what if she was happy?_

The thought was unbidden but it still made him pause in his tracks, an icy cold dagger plunging into his stomach.

What if she _had_ been happy at the thought that he was out of her life for good? Could she have been? Had what they had between them degenerated so much that she would be thankful for his death?

She certainly didn't look grief-stricken when he saw her yesterday – instead she just looked shocked.

He didn't want to think on this any further but the thoughts wouldn't leave him alone.

If that was the case then could he ever salvage anything between them? Did Kyoko _want_ to salvage anything between them?

Should he just give up now and leave her to her life in peace?

He snorted to himself, _what the hell was he thinking_? Obviously those painkillers were still in his system if he was thinking like this. It didn't sound like him _at all_!

He straightened his spine and started to move forward again, searching through the hotel. Kyoko was _his_. No matter what she thought he would always be a part of her life, always have a claim on her time and mind.

Just like she had a claim on his own.

He wouldn't just give up like this, it wasn't _him_. And pity the poor fool who tried to talk him out of it.

---/---

Ren had not been having a good few days.

After the confrontation with Yashiro he had kept himself separate from the rest of the group. Only looking after Maria when the President asked him to for a few hours.

Maria had spent the whole time talking to him about what she had been up to in school the past year and what she was enjoying. Ren had been lulled into a false sense of security. It was then that she started asking questions about Yashiro and where he was.

Ren had found them awkward to answer. Mainly because he didn't know where Yashiro was or what he was up to. Nor did he really care. He was still smarting over what Yashiro had revealed to him, the plan he had concocted.

So Ren had deflected Maria's comments as best he could and tried to lead the conversation onto other topics.

Maria was relentless though. It almost seemed like the only reason she was with Ren at that moment was to get him to talk about Yashiro. It was the most _exhausting_ three hours of Ren's life so far.

And considering the schedule that he had been keeping since becoming a teenager - that said a lot.

He had never been so grateful when Lory showed back up to take Maria away.

Now he was wandering the corridors of the hotel, trying to find clarity and figure out what he should do. Footsteps distracted him and he looked up, prepared to give a cursory greeting to the other hotel guest when he froze.

Sho stared back at him, surprise visible for a moment before he blanked his face.

"Tsuruga." Sho said shortly.

"...Fuwa." Ren returned, not really wanting to speak to him. The flash of guilt dampened down quickly when Ren realised that Sho didn't seem to be in any difficulty at all. In fact, the way he held himself spoke only of confidence and ease.

Ren felt a surge of annoyance. He had been feeling guilty over Sho being injured for a few days when it was obvious that he wasn't!

"What do you want?" Ren asked, a little rudely. His annoyance making the words sharper than they needed to be.

Sho leaned back a little, his lips twitched into a lazy smirk. "Oh...nothing really, just looking for Kyoko."

Ren gritted his teeth. Not only was Sho _not_ injured but he was rubbing the fact that he was closer to Kyoko than him in his face.

This would not do at all.

Ren looked back at the blond teenager and crossed his arms over his chest. "She doesn't want to see you."

Sho blinked, taken slightly off guard. "Ex_cuse_ me?" He asked.

Ren raised an eyebrow. "She _doesn't_ want to see _you_." He repeated.

"And did she tell you that herself?" Sho scoffed, sceptically.

"As a matter of fact, yes."

Sho was silent for a moment. "I don't care; I still need to speak to her."

Ren smiled politely at Sho, who didn't seem to be fazed in the least. "I have spoken to Kyoko-_chan_," he stressed, "and she asked me to keep you as far away from her as possible."

Sho was taken aback.

Ren pressed forward in his achievement. "So, no matter who you ask, you will never get close to her whilst I am around."

Ren watched as Sho pressed his lips together, his hands clenching into fists at his side. "Fine." He spat out, "I can see when I'm not wanted here." He turned on his heel and walked away. Ren mentally celebrated a victory as he also turned and walked back the way he came.

Now all he had to do was find Kyoko.

As soon as both the men had disappeared Kanae stepped around from behind the corner. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop at all but the conversation was _loud_.

Besides, it was also very worrying as she had been with Kyoko all yesterday and all last night and she had never seen Ren come and talk to her friend about anything, never mind Sho.

Her mind ran through the possibilities. It seemed that Ren was playing a different ball game to the rest of them and that he was up to something.

And she was determined to find out what.

---/---

Kyoko had fallen into a deep sleep yesterday, completely drained.

She awoke only when Kanae made a move to get up and ready. Even so she made no move to follow in her friends footsteps. She was quite comfortable where she was thank you very much.

When the door clicked closed and she was alone Kyoko rolled over, staring at the ceiling.

She felt much better now that she had actually had some sleep, but the sleep didn't help sort out any of the problems she had created for herself.

The first thing she needed to do, she decided, was to find Sho and apologise for shouting at him and then running away yesterday. After that she'd thank him for practically saving her life.

The she could ask him if he was at all conscious when she kissed him.

Or not! Nooooooo! That was a _bad_ idea.

She would leave _that _thought alone.

Ok, so, plan of action. Number one, find Sho. Number two, apologise, number three, thank him.

She sat up and immediately grimaced. Ok, new plan of action. Number one, shower...

---/---

Clean and dressed, Kyoko made her way down the corridor, intent on going to the front desk to find out what room Sho was staying in. It was purely by coincidence that she ran into Ren on the way.

She smiled at him. "Good afternoon Tsuruga-san."

Ren looked at her a little oddly, which she brushed off. "Kyoko-chan. How are you feeling?"

"I'm doing ok, a little sore but the doctor warned against that."

Ren nodded, "I'm glad you're doing ok. I haven't seen you in a few days and was starting to get worried."

"Oh!" Kyoko exclaimed, "You don't need to worry about me! I've been with Moko, she's been helping me. If there had been anything wrong she would have immediately told President Takarada. I was completely safe."

"That's good." Ren said, scrutinising her, "If I may ask, what are you doing here?"

Kyoko bit her lip, "Actually, I was heading down to the front desk."

"Why?" Ren asked.

"I wanted to find out which room Sho was staying in. I need to talk to him. Thank him."

A dark look passed over Ren's face that concerned Kyoko for a moment. "I wouldn't bother with him, Kyoko-chan."

Kyoko blinked, "Why not?"

Ren grimaced, "I ran into him earlier," he explained, "He was talking about how he couldn't believe that he risked him life in that cave."

"W-what?" Kyoko asked, hurt.

Ren looked at her pityingly, "He said some other stuff as well but I don't think you need to know..."

"No." Kyoko said numbly, "Please tell me what he said."

Ren hesitated for a moment. "Well, it was mostly that he didn't know what had come over him and that he wouldn't have tried so hard under normal circumstances because he'd...get nothing out of it."

Kyoko flinched and took a step back, her mind whirling. Had Sho actually said that? Did he mean it?

It cut too close to the first wound he had dealt her all those months ago for it to be a complete coincidence. Had he really not changed at all?

And what about where he asked her to forgive him? Where did that come into it?

She _had_ forgiven him! And he completely didn't deserve it! He deserved to burn instead.

Urgh! And she couldn't believe she had _kissed_ him as well.

Sho had just played her the entire time; she didn't even know why she was surprised anymore. He was always like this.

"Excuse me Tsuruga-san, but I think I need to go." He voice sounded hollow in her own ears and she watched as Ren nodded to her.

"I'm sorry that I was the one to bring you this piece of news, Kyoko-chan. If there is anything I can do, please let me know."

Kyoko nodded jerkily at him before turning back the way she had come.

She knew something like this would happen...

But it didn't explain why it felt like her heart was breaking all over again.

* * *

**Gah! Ren! When will he ever learn?**

**And yeah – I think something's up with because I know a few of you didn't get the alert saying that I updated and I didn't receive any review notices. But I did update on time!**

**Thoughts?**

**DS**


	20. Sunday 20th

**Let me explain why Ren seemed so OOC last chapter.**

**No, I don't think Ren could act like that – not really. To me, Ren is frigid. But could I see Kuon acting like that? Lying to get what he wants? Manipulating people and situations? Most definitely. (Though to be fair I'm not completely up to date so there may be inconsistencies)**

**I've been trying to show that Ren isn't in control at all. He keeps doing things and saying things that get twisted and backfire on him. He feels trapped (and I've obviously failed to get that across right) and has lashed out, reverting back to how he used to be. He has **_**lost control**_**. (I tried to get Yashiro to explain it a couple of chapters back by referring to Ren as just a mask, and one that is cracking as well.)**

**Of course, what he **_**still**_** doesn't seem to get, is that he doesn't need to act like Kuon – doesn't need to manipulate anyone – to get what he wants. He just hasn't realised that yet.**

**Sometimes being blunt works too!**

**If you still don't feel the same way, fair enough. I **_**like**_** thinking that Kuon acts like this – it's how I read his character. Makes him more interesting, with darkness and violence just simmering below the surface.**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 20th – 5 days to go

* * *

Kyoko was sitting with Kanae in the hotel's dining room for lunch.

Kanae had stayed the night in Kyoko's room again because Kyoko was still feeling upset by what had happened yesterday. It had taken a long while for the girl to fall asleep and Kanae made sure that Kyoko was settled before she followed.

As such both girls woke late into the morning and found that they had missed the breakfast rush.

They both decided to wait the couple of hours until lunch instead of trying to go out the hotel and finding something.

Not that they would have been able to get out the front doors anyway as the reporters seemed to have doubled overnight. They had found out that Ren was staying with them as well.

The situation was turning into a nightmare. Security had been doubled and still the press were finding ways to sneak into the hotel.

Apparently Sho had had some trouble with a photographer ambushing him outside his room.

There had also been whispers that Reino had booked himself in the hotel as well...though that had yet to be confirmed.

Kyoko shivered when she thought of it. Wasn't it bad enough that the two people she hated most in the world at this moment had followed her on her holiday?

...Okay, true – it wasn't exactly a holiday to start off with...and also true was the fact that _she_ had technically followed _Sho_...

But that wasn't the point!

Kyoko took a bite of her lunch and decided not to think on it anymore, it was just upsetting her. Kanae was sitting next to her, enjoying her own lunch and the atmosphere in the room was relaxed.

She was completely unprepared to walk out of the room with Kanae and find herself on the televisions in the saloon.

"What. The. Hell." Kanae said, coming to a complete standstill.

Kyoko walked into the back of her. Blinking away the stars from her eyes she peered around her friend and stared with slack-jawed horror at the confrontation between herself, Reino and Sho that had been caught at the very beginning of the holidays.

"_What_? Why are they showing that now?"

Kanae could only shrug as the programme was being presented in Italian like all others they had seen. Despite the fact that they had been talking in Japanese and that the original audience hadn't understood a word of what had been said, the channel that was playing the footage had, oh-so-helpfully, put subtitles up.

Kyoko winced as she saw TV-Sho grab TV-Kyoko and yell "_She's mine!"_ at TV-Reino. TV-Kanae just looked dumbfounded.

_Great_, Kyoko thought, _Now, not only everyone in Japan can understand that but now everyone in Italy can as well._

"It is a bit weird that they would show the footage now. It's a few weeks old, and they have better footage of you as well – what with your little mountain escapade."

It was like Kanae had flicked a switch. Suddenly it all made sense. Why they were showing it now, why Sho had said those things to Ren yesterday.

This was all _Sho's_ doing!

It was obvious publicity no matter how he span it – either him protecting her or him being so infatuated that he would publicly declare it.

He was going to have such an increase of female fans, for who wouldn't want someone like Sho to be possessive?

Kyoko clenched her jaw. Of course, _she _would have to deal with the fallout. When a popular idol declares himself taken in such a way...or at all really...there were going to be jealous fans. And thanks to her role on dark moon she was easily recognised to those who watched it – which judging by the ratings was over three quarters of the country.

She was going to get so much hate mail for this it wouldn't be funny. And it was all Sho's fault. Did he ever think of _anyone_ but himself?

"That's it." Kyoko murmured, ignoring the look Kanae gave her.

"What's it?" Kanae asked when it became apparent that Kyoko wasn't going to expand.

"I'm going to stay as far away from Sho as possible."

"What? Why? To stop even more rumours?"

"No. Well, yes. But also because this is his entire fault. He did this for publicity – manipulated everything."

Kanae stared at her. "You...honestly believe that?" She asked after a moment.

"It's the only thing that makes sense." Kyoko huffed. "From now on I'm staying as far away as possible from him."

---/---

She managed to avoid any and all sightings and mentions of Sho until dinner, where he cornered her in the dining hall, sitting at the seat opposite her that she had reserved for Kanae.

"That seat's taken." Kyoko said stiffly.

Sho frowned at her. "I'm sure Kanae-san won't mind me sitting here for a moment whilst I talk to you."

"_She_ might not, but I certainly do."

"What is it _now_?" Sho asked, frustration peeking through. "Have you been avoiding me?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Kyoko sneered, folding her arms.

Sho carded his fingers through his hair, agitatedly. "There must be something." He said, "You've avoided me since we were trapped."

"I haven't been avoiding you."

"Oh _really_?" Sho asked unimpressed. "Because I seem to remember walking through the front doors and you running off as fast as you could."

"That was explainable."

"Yeah," he said sarcastically, "because 'zombie' is normally the first thing you think of."

Kyoko clenched her jaw. "Shut up. I don't have to explain anything to you."

"Oh!" Sho interrupted her, "And let's not forget the days where you spent holed up in your room!"

"I was _tired_!"

"Of _course_ you were. Then there was the fact that you told Ren to tell me that you never wanted to see you again! You can't explain that away – he made it pretty clear to me what you were trying to say."

"Liar!" Kyoko shot to her feet, slamming her hands onto the table top.

There was a hushed silence as Kyoko's voice screeched out in the room, every eye drawn to the couple who were making the disturbance.

"_Excuse me?"_ Sho asked in disbelief, "What do you mean liar? What possible reason would I get out of lying?"

Kyoko leaned forward, invading Sho's personal space. "You're doing this for yourself, aren't you?" she hissed. "You manipulated everything from the start to try and make yourself more popular."

"You're delusional if you actually believe that."

"Oh really?" Kyoko chuckled darkly, "Then why were you acting all friendly and weird to me at the beginning of the month before we even left Japan if not to set this up."

Sho ground his teeth, his face twisting into a scowl. "I was just trying to be _nice_ to you, as strange and as weird as that sounds.

"I realised that I may have acted a bit pompous with you and that it was no way to treat you. But with the way you're acting right now I don't know why I ever thought that."

"You brought that camera crew at the beginning!"

"Not purposefully! I'm about to start a _world tour_! Do you think that there would be no channel that would be _interested_ in that? I didn't plan that argument! Reino just showed up because he's a _stalker_. I thought that you would remember that.

"The only reason that I said those things to him was because I was trying to _protect_ you. Though I can clearly see now that it was a waste of energy seeing as how you're trying to blame everything on me no matter that I'm innocent of everything that you're accusing me of."

"And being trapped in the cave?"

"Yes." Sho deadpanned, "Because I'm able to magically control the weather."

"Fine, but that still doesn't explain what you said to Ren yesterday."

"I was just trying to find you! I didn't even insult the bastard and he's threatening me like it's no tomorrow. If anything _he_ should be apologising to _me_."

"Don't," Kyoko spat at him, "Don't you _dare_ insult Ren like that! He's a great man! A better man than you'll ever be!

I _never_ want to see your face again Fuwa."

With that parting shot she turned and stormed out the room, ignoring the other diners who were looking at them both as avidly as they would watch T.V. soap, and completely forgetting that she had come to eat with Kanae.

Sho stood up from his seat and slammed his hands against the table. "Fine then!" he yelled after her, "You both deserve each other!"

He looked at the diners who were all staring at him now. "What are you looking at?" he snarled before striding through the doors.

* * *

**Lol.**

**Nothing like a bit of an argument to clear the air! Or not as the case may be...**

**Tomorrow will have more Ren! Yay, Ren! And Yashiro!**

**I've just got to work out how to fix all these broken relationships... ¬¬**

**Thoughts?**

**DS**


	21. Monday 21st

**Paty: Lol – don't worry about it. I wasn't offended at all :P I actually found it kind of flattering that I could evoke that kind of response so you don't need to apologise that much --grin--**

**And about Kuon – yeah, have your own opinions about what he would or wouldn't do – you even make a valid argument about how immature and stupid he's being at the moment (which he is – the idiot). **

**But I'd still like to point out that though he may have been raised with love and respect, I've seen hardly any evidence that shows he's like that at all. Take, for example, the scene where it shows him holding a beaten boy by the collar – obviously having been in and won a fight. Or that he played the spoilt brat on pretty much every one of his acting jobs and got kicked off the set. **_**Or**_** that he decided that he wouldn't even acknowledge his parents until he felt he had beaten his father. **

**Or (if that isn't enough) the fact that Kuon had Corn before he gave it to Kyoko and Reino can feel the major hate vibes – so much so that he would go out of his way to purify it, even though he's meant to be acting evil towards Kyoko at that moment. And you've got to remember that Kuon could only have been about twelve at this time, so as a child he hated.**

**To me, when Kuon became Ren he swapped physical violence for passive aggressiveness – seen by his smile. Even **_**Kyoko**_** picks up on that and she's oblivious to most things. His goal is still to beat his father, to achieve this he needs to become well liked and he would never have gotten jobs if he acted the same way. Of course, Kyoko seems to be doing a fine job of teaching/reminding him what it's like to not have to bow to that kind of pressure and he's changing – you can see it in the manga. Kyoko is **_**good**_** for him.**

**But to lose something like that? He **_**is**_** going to try and do anything and everything in his power to keep her, even if that means lying. He isn't going to just step back and let someone else steal her – he has too much single-minded determination for that.**

**Don't get me wrong – I like Ren and I like portraying him as being good. But for once I wanted to explore what would happen if we took some of his perfect control away. There's a lack of Dark!Ren fics out there (I don't even know if there's **_**one**_**) which I find sad because an author could have so much fun figuring out just how he would act. And besides, Dark!Ren is just awesome.**

**(In fact – if anyone is still reading this and writes a Dark!Ren fic send me the link!)**

**Besides. All of this probably never would have happened if Yashiro was there. THAT'S RIGHT – I'M BLAMING YASHIRO. :D**

**If anyone read this authors note all the way then I commend you and you get a virtual present to put under your virtual tree.**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 21th – 4 days to go

* * *

Kyoko woke in a bad mood.

The argument that she had had with Sho the day before still permeated the air, making everything seem distasteful.

She just couldn't _believe_ that Sho had accused Ren like that. It was a good thing that she had called him on it. She could hardly imagine just what he would have said next if she had allowed him to go on.

She pulled on her clothes with suppressed viciousness. Sho just got her so riled up! She needed to talk to someone about this, Kanae preferably.

Double checking that she had her key she quickly made her way over to Kanae's room, which was just down the hall from her own. Kanae had spent the night in her own room, and Kyoko had been too angry last night to feel grateful.

With the way she had been acting there had been the chance that she would have snapped at her friend and destroyed the friendship between them. Just another thing that Sho would have caused.

Kyoko gritted her teeth and knocked on the door. She only had to wait a few seconds before Kanae was there, still looking sleepy.

"Kyoko?" she asked, "What's wrong? Is there something you needed?"

"Can I come in?"

"Oh, yes of course." Kanae said, moving to the side to make room in the doorway.

Kyoko walked in and sat on the unmade bed. It was only then that she noticed that Kanae was still in her pyjamas. She ducked her head, feeling sheepish.

"I'm sorry. Did I wake you?"

"Yeah," Kanae said. "Don't worry about it though, seems like I should be getting up sometime soon anyway. After all, it is half...six...in the morning..." she trailed off when she realised exactly how early it was and shot a glare at Kyoko.

Kyoko winced. "Sorry. Didn't realise it was that early."

"No. I bet you didn't." Kanae said a little peevishly, making her way to the bed and settling under the covers again.

"Er..." Kyoko said, looking at her friend who seemed to be trying to go back to sleep.

"It's early and you made me wake up. I'm going back to sleep unless you have something desperately important that you need to say to me."

There was a moment's silence where Kanae waited for Kyoko's reply.

"Um...not really..." Kyoko said.

Kanae sighed in relief and snuggled down further under the covers, switching off the bedside light.

"It's just that Sho's being such a git!" Kyoko burst out, unable to help herself.

Kanae sighed and sat back up, switching on the light. "What?" she asked blankly.

"Sho!" Kyoko stressed to her friend. "He was going on yesterday about how Ren had said some things to him! It was obviously untrue, Ren _told_ me what happened. Sho was just using me for entertainment or something, trying to get more popularity for himself." Kyoko finished with a flourish, obviously expecting her friend to agree with her wholeheartedly and join in on how much Sho was being horrible.

Instead Kanae just chewed on her bottom lip, looking uncertain.

"What?" Kyoko asked, feeling dread creep into her stomach.

"Well...it's just that...Kyoko, _I _heard Ren say some things to Sho."

"What?" Kyoko asked, "No! That can't be true. You must have misunderstood. Walked in at the wrong moment."

Kanae shook her head. "I was there for the entire conversation, Kyoko. There's no way I could have misinterpreted what they were saying."

Kyoko looked horrified. "Wh-what did they say?"

"Sho was trying to find you, he wanted to talk to you. And Ren...Ren said that he had already talked to you and that you didn't want to see Sho at all."

Kyoko felt like the bottom had dropped out of her stomach. She felt sick. "B-but, I didn't say that."

Kanae nodded sympathetically. "I know. It sounded a little strange to me. I was trying to figure out just what Ren was up to. I haven't got very far though."

"Why would he say something like that though?" Kyoko asked.

Kanae shrugged, "I don't know. I think that if you want any answers you're going to have to talk to Ren directly."

Kyoko nodded, standing up in a daze. She needed to see Ren, talk to him. Try to figure out just what had happened because, if what Kanae had said was true, then she had just falsely accused Sho and shouted at him in front of a room full of people.

She groaned to herself at the memory. She really hoped Ren could deny the accusation.

---/---

Ignoring the half-hearted protest made by Kanae, Kyoko went straight to Ren's room and knocked on the door.

Ren answered, also clad in his pyjamas but Kyoko was too distracted to really care. Besides, she had already seen him in such a similar state of dress when she had to take care of him when he was ill that time.

"Kyoko-chan?" Ren asked, sounding surprised.

"Ren-san. We need to talk."

Ren nodded and moved to the side, allowing Kyoko access to his rooms. "What is it you wanted to talk about?"

"Did you tell Sho that I told you that I didn't want to see him?" Kyoko burst out, needing to know the answer.

A dark look passed over Ren's face. "Who said that? Was it Fuwa? You shouldn't believe anything that he says."

"Actually, it was Kanae. She overheard the conversation."

Ren froze for a second, but that was all the confirmation Kyoko needed. She took a step back, betrayal showing starkly on her face. "Why?"

"I..." Ren started, "You're too good for him. You deserve better than him, someone who would treat you like you should be – not someone that looks at you as a possession.

"I was just trying to keep him away, keep you safe."

Kyoko took another step backwards.

"Ren-san, you didn't need to...you made me...he..." She was unable to finish any of the sentences that she needed to. Not fully being able to understand what Ren had just admitted to. She needed to think. She needed space. "I have to go." She said, turning and going for the door.

"Wait! Kyoko! I was only trying to protect you."

All the breath left Kyoko at once. She stared at the open door. "But you didn't, did you?" She said hollowly, "You just did what Sho did. Lied to me and manipulated me into thinking something that would benefit you."

"Please, Kyoko..." Ren begged quietly, reaching out towards her as if he could grab her and never let go. He sounded so lost at that moment.

Kyoko refused to look at him. "I need to go. I don't want to see you for a while."

With that parting shot she exited and closed the door behind her, leaving Ren standing alone in the middle of his room.

---/---

Yashiro had not expected the knock on his door that morning.

He had been up already, this being the time he was usually at breakfast and going over what Ren would be doing for the day. Just because he had stopped being Ren's manager made his body revert back to his old schedule.

Thus he was up and dressed. It didn't stop him from being shocked when he saw Ren standing in his doorway looking like his entire life had shattered around him.

"Ren-san?" Yashiro asked hesitantly.

"Yashiro..." Ren said quietly, "I think I've made a mistake."

Yashiro's heart clenched and he motioned for Ren to come in. "Tell me what happened."

And Ren told him everything. From his feelings to the plan that had led to him leading both Sho and Kyoko onto the black run. He spoke of the guilt he felt and how he didn't think that was going to go away.

The he told Yashiro about what he had said to Sho and how Kyoko had found out and now everything had turned bad.

Yashiro just sat and listened, knowing that Ren needed this outlet, needed to cauterise his wounds.

It wasn't until Ren had completely finished that Yashiro spoke.

"Are you a complete idiot?"

Ren flinched.

"I mean," Yashiro continued, trying to clarify, "Did you ever think that _lying_ to Kyoko was going to work? That she would never find out?"

"Well...I was _hoping..._"

"_Really_?" Yashiro cut Ren off, "Because it seems to me that you've been so caught up that you've forgotten who you are.

"God! You can't just..." Yashiro made a noise of frustration, "Argh. You see, this is why you need me. Inspire some logic into the situations you seem to find yourself in. I swear, all of you seem to lack common sense sometimes.

"I blame President Takarada."

Ren stared at him.

"Look," Yashiro said, "You betrayed Kyoko's trust, but she's forgiving...kind of..." Yashiro added when he remembered Kyoko's vendetta against Sho that had lasted for over half a year.

Ren seemed to remember this fact too if the grimace was anything to go by.

"I think," Yashiro continued slowly, trying to gather his thoughts. "If we can get Kyoko to listen to you, and you repeat exactly what you just said to me...you might have a chance."

Hope flared briefly in Ren's eyes. "You think I should go talk to her now?"

"Good God, no! She's more likely to hurt you than forgive you at this moment in time."

The hope died. "So what do I do?"

Yashiro patted Ren on the shoulder. "If I was you, I would try to avoid her for the rest of the day. I'll think of some way that will get the two of you together so you can explain properly."

Yashiro was rewarded by the respect that showed in Ren's expression. "Why are you doing this for me?" he asked, "You aren't my manager anymore."

"Ren," Yashiro said patiently, "I am, and always will be, your manager. But more importantly than that, I see you as a friend."

Ren smiled tiredly at him, "Thank you."

* * *

**I was serious about the Dark!Ren fics by the way. Send them to me if you write/find any! **

**Well, that's some stuff out of the way at least...and please don't feel like you have to feel the way I do about Kuon/Ren's character. To each their own, eh?**

**Thoughts?**

**DS**


	22. Tuesday 22nd

**So close to Christmas!**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 22nd – 3 days to go

* * *

Sho woke confused.

The reason of his confusion is that he seemed to be propped up in a chair rather than lying in the bed he was sure he had fallen asleep in.

Had he sleepwalked? It would have been embarrassing if he had, he thought he had grown out of that phase when he was still in elementary school.

"So you're awake."

Ah, ok. Maybe he hadn't sleepwalked then, not if Reino had anything to do with it.

Wait...oh crap.

"Reino." Sho turned his head, trying to find where the platinum haired man was.

"Sho..." Reino purred, stepping out from the shadows directly behind him.

Sho suppressed a shiver. _That_ had been one of the creepiest things he had seen in a long while.

"Well," Sho drawled, "as pleasant as this conversation is...I'm leaving now." He went to stand but found himself jerked back into his seat. His wrists bound to the armrests. "What?" he asked.

"Did you really think I would let you go so easily? Or give you the means to leave?" Reino stepped around from the back of the chair, trailing his fingers across Sho's shoulder and down his arm.

"You can't just _keep_ me here! Let me go you crazy psycho."

Reino tutted mockingly. "Oh Sho, you wound me."

"I wish." Sho grumbled.

"I took great pains in getting you all set up so we could have a nice chat."

Sho stared at him. _Yeah_, he thought, _chat_. Then a thought struck him.

"Wait a minute, just how _did_ you get me here without me waking up?"

Reino smiled, "You shouldn't worry about small things like that."

Sho felt the blood drain from his face. "So you drugged me then."

Reino laughed like he had said the funniest thing in the world. "I didn't need to. You're just an extremely heavy sleeper."

Sho didn't know what was worse – that Reino apparently could get into his room, that Reino could drag his unconscious body around the building without anyone noticing, or that he didn't even have the excuse of being drugged. Trying not to think about it he decided to draw the conversation away from the topic.

"So, where are we?" he asked politely...well, semi-politely at least. Reino would know he was planning something if he suddenly started acting all nice to him and Sho really needed to know where he was so he could try and figure out if he could escape or if help was going to arrive.

Reino just spread his hands out to his side, palms up. "Still in the hotel, if that's what you're wondering."

Sho felt relieved. If he was still in the hotel then that meant that sooner or later someone would find them and he'd be free. He just had to stall, maybe figure out what Reino was up to...subtly of course.

"What are you up to?" Inside Sho cringed. Obviously he'd been hanging around Kyoko to much if he'd become that blunt. The thought of Kyoko send a sharp stab of pain through his chest.

Reino chuckled, amused by Sho's lack of anything. "I just want to talk to you." He said, moving closer. "Well," he amended, "talk to you and Kyoko-chan."

Sho's face twisted into a frown. "What do you want with Kyoko?" He asked harshly, "What's your deal with her anyway?"

"_Because_!" Reino spat, darkness swallowing his feature for a moment before he smiled again. "It doesn't really matter, Kyoko-chan will get here soon and then we can have a _nice_ discussion."

Sho felt ill.

---/---

After her outburst two days ago, Kyoko had been sure that Sho would stay as far away from her as possible. She had said many things to him, most of them completely uncalled for even before she had found out what Ren had done.

She had been feeling guilty about it and had spent all yesterday coming up with many different plans that would allow them to make up again. Most of them were discarded before she even put them on paper.

As it was she had fallen asleep last night at a complete loss of how to fix it.

So it was reasonable to say that she was surprised when she found a note pushed under her door from Sho asking her to meet him in one of the rooms to talk.

Seeing this as a perfect way to apologise for what she said, she immediately got dressed and went to find him.

The room was hidden away in one of the furthest corner of the building and it took a while to work out where it was. She spared a few seconds to wonder why exactly Sho would want to meet her in such an out of the way place but she reasoned to herself that he probably just didn't want an audience.

The press had doubled their efforts to get into the hotel after someone leaked the news of their public argument.

Shrugging to herself she opened the door, calling out as she did so.

It wasn't until she saw Sho tied to a chair that she realised that she had been lured into a trap.

---/---

Sho could only look on in horror as Kyoko walked straight into Reino's hand. She seemed to realise it too if the look in her eye was any indication.

"Sho?" She asked anyway.

Sho was a little surprised to hear a complete lack of hostility in her tone of voice, but he couldn't dwell on that thought for too long as he was more concerned with the looming shadow that was materialising behind her.

"Hello, Kyoko-chan."

Kyoko gave out a startled squeak and spun around, only to come face to face with Reino who had bent down until his face was level with hers. She stumbled backwards, trying to get away, until she bumped into the chair Sho was sitting on.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, and Sho was impressed that there was only a faint hint of a tremor in her voice.

"We've been waiting for you, isn't that right Sho?"

Sho scowled. "I still don't understand why you've brought her into this. It's not like we're friends." He added, unable to keep the bitterness away.

Kyoko flinched.

Reino smiled to himself, "Ah yes," he mused, "The infamous argument. Nevertheless, friends you may not be but that isn't what the problem is."

"There's a problem?" Sho asked, twisting his wrists to try and loosen the ropes.

"Of _course_ there's a problem."

There was silence for a moment before Kyoko worked up the courage. "What's the problem?"

Reino grinned at her, showing off _far_ too many teeth for it to be innocent...if anything he did could ever be classified as that. "Why, _you_ are."

Kyoko's eyes widened and she took a step closer to Sho, leaning against him.

Sho didn't know why though, it wasn't as if he could actually stop Reino in the state he was in.

"You see," Reino said, ignoring his two guests for the moment. "I like to destroy things. It keeps me entertained. But copies just don't have the same thrill as originals.

"That's why I went after out darling Sho-kun. Of course, nothing I did ever seemed to make a mark on him." Reino frowned, "I tried everything that I could think of, using all the tricks that I knew had worked before, but still..."

He turned to Kyoko and took a step towards her, a maniacal gleam in his eye. "I was getting frustrated. No one had ever come through like that. I grew desperate. And then _you_ came in and I realised that I had been going about this all the wrong way.

"To destroy him, I'd have to destroy those things he loved, and I had foolishly believed that it had been the material possessions."

Sho made a sound of denial at the statement.

"I saw how he acted towards you. How you acted towards each other..." he took another step forward. "And I realised then that the only way to destroy his would be to take away _you_."

"What?" Kyoko asked faintly.

"Don't you see?" Reino implored, "He had to see _me_. I was the one putting all this effort into it. He should only have been focused on _me_. But then _you_ came along," he snarled, "and all Sho could see was _you_ even though I was _right there_.

"I had to do it. I had to make it so that whenever he looked at you he only saw me."

"That's why you did it?" Kyoko choked out.

"Of course. But it _still didn't work_. Sho _still_ saw you! Even now he only sees you. So I decided that you had to go. If you went then Sho wouldn't get distracted by you.

"Only that didn't go according to plan either – leaving you trapped together for two days. _Two days!_ Where I could do nothing! And he nearly died."

Sho and Kyoko just stared at him, unable to fully believe what they were hearing.

"But I have a new plan now. One that will get you out of the way for good."

Kyoko swallowed and took another step back until Sho was between her and Reino.

"Come, Kyoko-chan," he said, "I promise you this will work."

"No it won't." The soft voice of Sho stopped Reino in his tracks.

"What?" he asked.

"I said, 'No it won't'," Sho repeated, his voice becoming stronger. "No matter what you do, if your goal is to make me forget about Kyoko then it's going to fail.

"Because every time I look at you all I will see is her."

Reino took a sharp step back, his feature twisting into a grimace.

"Whatever you're planning, it _will_ fail."

Sho sounded so certain that Kyoko could not believe in anything other than what he had just said. She felt flattered but also extremely guilty.

"If you want me to see you," Sho continued, looking at Reino, "then you have to make me see you without forcing me."

Reino looked torn for a moment before he blanked his face. He glanced at Kyoko who was still standing behind Sho.

"This isn't over." He spat out eventually, "I will get you and destroy you in the end." He turned and exited the room.

Sho just watched him go apathetically. He vaguely registered that he had just invited Reino to practically double his vendetta against him. If vendetta was even the right word...but Kyoko seemed to be safe for the moment and for the foreseeable future which was good.

"Sho?"

Sho snapped his head around to look at Kyoko who was still standing behind him nervously.

"Could you undo these ropes?" He asked, not wanting to get into a conversation with her lest she start to yell at him again and blame him for what Reino had tricked her into today. His emotions just couldn't handle it right at this moment.

"Oh, yeah. Sure."

Kyoko kept her head bowed as she worked at the knots, refusing to even look at him. Sho stared at the ceiling, wanting to just curl up and go back to bed.

_After_ he had switched rooms of course.

The ropes gave way and Sho stood, massaging his wrists.

"Sho?" Kyoko asked again, timidly.

"I'm sorry about this." Sho said, refusing to look at her. Instead he walked over to the door. "I honestly didn't think this would happen. Not that I think you'd believe me."

He murmured the last part but Kyoko still heard it. She winced. "Sho. I need to talk to you about what I said."

Sho grabbed the door knob and pulled, "I got the message, Mogami. You made it pretty clear. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go and see about changing my room."

Kyoko watched him leave, guilt eating at her. She had wanted to apologise but it seemed that she had burned all her bridges with Sho.

She had no clue how to make this right.

* * *

**Ok. I really hope that the Reino scene was as good as I planned, but I have a feeling that it isn't at all. It feels rushed. Very rushed.**

**I hope everyone understands why Kyoko is safe from Reino at the moment. If you don't then tell me and I'll see if I can explain better...¬¬**

**DS**


	23. Wednesday 23rd

**Paty: Lol. Merry Christmas to you too :P**

**And don't worry – I'm not blaming Yashiro! Also, your review inspired me. I have yet **_**another**_** fic that I want to write. **

**Sheesh, just when I thought that I'd move on a little to a different fandom! XD**

**Oh my gosh guys! Tomorrows Christmas Eve Day! (Ok...they have to come up with a better name for that.)**

**Also...um...I just realised that I've been running on no plan for...a week and a half now? I'm kind of running out of things I can think to put in. You want to see anything desperately?**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 23rd – 2 days to go

* * *

"Kyoko!" Kanae burst into Kyoko's room, ignoring her moping best friend. "Kyoko! You've _got_ to see this!" Grabbing Kyoko by the arm she manhandled the girl out the room and down the corridor into the lifts.

"Moko!" Kyoko protested, "I don't have my key! I won't be able to get back into my room."

"Don't worry about that." Kanae said, brushing off her concerns, "I have a copy of yours."

"Um..." Kyoko ventured warily, "_Why _do you have a copy of my key?"

Kanae looked caught for a moment, shifting guiltily. "Oh look!" she said happily as the doors opened, "We're there!"

"You didn't answer my questi–ahhh!" Kyoko was cut off when Kanae shoved her out of the lift before the door closed on them. "What the?"

"Look!" Kanae said pointing to a sign that had been translated into a number of languages. "There! That's what I wanted to show you!"

"Christmas Ball?" Kyoko said slowly, reading it out.

"I know! Isn't it going to be _fun_?"

"Bit short notice, isn't it?"

Kanae shrugged, "Maybe we missed it with everything that's been going on lately?"

They both stared at the sign which was at least six foot high and smothered in tinsel and flashing Christmas tree lights.

"You think...that we could miss _that_?" Kyoko asked sceptically.

Kanae huffed. "Um...well maybe the staff just forgot to put it out to tell us about it?"

"Well _somebody_ forgot, that's for certain."

They stared at the sign again, ignoring the people who had to walk around them.

"You want to go?" Kanae asked. "If you do we need to get an outfit. Oh! And isn't it Maria's birthday as well? We'll have to get her a present as well. We could even take over the ball and throw an impromptu birthday party for her!"

Kyoko turned and looked at her friend. "You've had this worked out for a while now, haven't you?"

Kanae blushed slightly. "Well," she mumbled, "maybe a little...but that's not the point! You want to go?"

"Eh," Kyoko shrugged, "Why not. Haven't got anything else planned today."

"Wonderful!" Kanae enthused.

Kyoko looked at her funny. "Did you eat a ton of sugar before you came to my room today? You're not acting like yourself at all.

"It's a little creepy."

"Nonsense! You've just been really down lately and I thought I would cheer you up! Besides," she added becoming a little more serious, "This is my 'Christmas' personality. Do you honestly think I could survive with fourteen odd sugar high kids on a rampage for practically a whole week without it?"

"So...it's kind of like a safety mechanism?"

"Exactly!" Kanae said brightly, her grin blinding. "The trick is to consume more sugar so you can run faster! The only problem is that I've trained my body to accept the amount so if I don't then Bad Things happen."

Kyoko's eyes widened and she shivered. Bad Things was very bad.

"Wait, don't you hate sweet things?" Kyoko asked confused.

Kanae shivered, "The amount that I get through in December puts me off for a year. Just the _thought_ of sugar in any other month is scarring."

"Ri-ight."

"Anyway! We should go now if we want to get to the shops."

They both turned and froze; the reporters outside the door surged forward again, as if they could _smell_ them.

"Ah, that could be a problem." Kanae said as they both looked out at the sight.

"We could always go out the back..." Kyoko ventured.

"Yeah, until someone recognises us when we're out and then we get mobbed without anyone to keep them away."

Kyoko bit her lip. "Okay, you have a point there."

"Damn it! I wanted to go out!"

"Look," Kyoko reasoned, "We aren't the only people this has happened to. We've just got to figure out how other celebrities got around it."

"Well, how does Ren do it then?"

Kyoko's face fell at the mention of Ren and Kanae cursed herself.

"I don't know," Kyoko said quietly, "Ren doesn't do anything other than just be him. We were mobbed when I had to take over Yashiro's position. But he never seems to have that trouble at other times."

Kanae thought about this, her forefinger pressed against her lips. "So..." she said, drawing out the word, "If Ren doesn't do anything, then it must be _Yashiro_ who does! We should get him to take us shopping!"

"You want us to ask Yashiro-san if he will take us shopping?" Kyoko asked in disbelief.

"No! Of course not, don't be silly. We'll say that we need to go out and need an escort that will keep away the reporters.

"I'm sure he'd love to help out. After all, he _is_ a gentleman and who would leave two poor, defenceless girls out to battle their way through that?"

"...You're evil. You know that?"

"It's the sugar." Kanae said blithely.

"Fine, I'm not even going to point out the flaws in this plan because it's the best one we've got. But I'd still like to make a token protest about being described as poor and defenceless."

"Duly noted. Now," Kanae said, rubbing her hands together and looking evil. "How to convince Yashiro about this."

"Convince me about what?"

The two girls span around and blinked at the sight of Yashiro standing behind them looking confused.

"How long have you been standing there?" Kyoko asked guardedly.

"Um...I just arrived."

"Wonderful!" Kanae said happily, and then remembered that she was supposed to be playing the part of a meek and easily hurt damsel. "I mean, oh! It's so wonderful to see you Yashiro-san! We were wondering if you could help us?"

Yashiro looked intrigued. "If I can."

"It's just, Kyoko and I need to go out to town to pick up some stuff, but we can't with all the reporters standing there, waiting to mob us and to touch us in inappropriate places..."

Kyoko had to bite the inside of her cheek really hard to stop herself from saying anything. Honestly! Kanae was playing with this too much!

Yashiro seemed to be lapping it up though. He adjusted his glasses. "So you want me to...?" he prompted.

"We were wondering if you would consent to being our chaperone for the day?"

"I don't mind at all."

Kanae grinned, "Brilliant. We'll meet you down here in ten minutes then. Kyoko! We have to go get our coats."

Yashiro looked a little bewildered by the abrupt change in attitude, "Um..." he asked, faltering when Kanae looked at him blankly, "Do...you expect it to take long?"

"Of course not," Kanae assured him, dragging Kyoko back towards the lift, "it shouldn't take long at all. Should it Kyoko?" She elbowed Kyoko hard in the ribs, winding her so that Kyoko could only shake her head.

"Oh, ok...? I'll just...wait here...then..."

The lift doors opened and the two girls got on, Kanae waved at him. "Don't worry! We'll be back in a moment!"

Then the lift doors closed and cut them from his sight. Kyoko tried to catch her breath. "That was kind of mean."

Kanae shrugged. "Right now I'm mentally not responsible for my actions."

Kyoko just closed her eyes. "That doesn't help."

---/---

Yashiro didn't really know how he was conned into this.

One moment he was just trying to do Kanae and Kyoko a favour, the next he was roped into a several hour long shopping trip, including bag holding.

It had started out fine, all he had had to do was glare at the reporters and they immediately backed off. He had had tons of practice perfecting his glare when he was protecting Ren from overzealous fans and media back home.

Which reminded him, he really needed to talk to the President about his job. Preferably soon, before he was replaced.

_Clothes shopping_, he decided as he shifted slightly outside the changing rooms, _has to be the most boring thing ever._

And it made him feel like a bit of a pervert waiting outside the door and being made to comment on the outfits that Kanae was trying on and forcing Kyoko into.

He had seen a side of both of them that he wished he could erase from his brain.

"So what about this one?" Kanae asked, stepping out of the cubical in a short black sequined dress.

"It looks fine." He said monotonously. He had long ago learned that no matter what he said she would ignore it and judge herself harshly.

"I don't know..."

Yashiro bit back a groan. The shop assistants behind the till giggled behind their hands at him and he felt himself flushing.

Dear God. Never again.

Kyoko was easier. She had found something almost at once and refused to try anything else on saying that if it fit and she looked good then what was the point.

Yashiro thought that he could seriously fall in love with her if she truly believed that.

"Ok, I'm just going to try on these last few dresses." Kanae said, locking herself away again with a dozen or so more dresses.

Yashiro rolled his eyes and went over to stand by Kyoko who was looking at some bracelets. This was a perfect opportunity to talk to Kyoko about Ren and see if she would forgive him.

"Kyoko-chan?"

Kyoko turned and looked at him enquiringly, "Yes?"

"I just..." Ok, this was harder than he expected. "I talked to Ren."

Kyoko's face blanked.

"It's just," Yashiro pressed on a little desperately, "he told me what happened. All of it. And I think he's really sorry about it all."

"Really."

Yashiro winced. He wasn't doing a very good job with this. "I'm not asking for you to forgive him." He said cautiously, "I just think that you should talk. Let him explain everything.

"I'm sure it will help."

Kyoko turned back to the bracelets, picking one up for closer inspection. "If it's all the same to you, Yashiro-san, I don't really want to talk about it right now."

"No that's...understandable. I guess." He shifted uncomfortably. "Would you just maybe think about it then?"

Kyoko shrugged.

"Okay!" Kanae said, "This is the one!"

_Finally!_Yashiro thought with relief.

---/---

Getting back in to the hotel was easier than leaving as the reporters had already been suitably cowed.

This was good because Yashiro was unsure whether he even had the energy to muster up a petulant pout never mind a Death Glare.

"I'm going to go find Maria." Kyoko said, walking off with her shopping bags and leaving Yashiro and Kanae in the lobby.

Yashiro stared after her sadly. Maybe it hadn't been the best course of action to talk about Ren earlier.

"She'll get over it."

Yashiro turned to face Kanae in surprise.

Kanae only shrugged in response. "I'm not oblivious. I know the gist of what happened, plus I overheard you in the shop."

Yashiro didn't know what to say so he settled for an "Oh."

"I don't agree with what Ren did." Kanae said frowning, "But...I can kind of understand...sort of. You've just got to wait a while. He really hurt her and it'll take a little longer for that to work out. Though I might be persuaded to help."

"Really?" Yashiro asked, feeling a spark of hope.

"There's no promise though. If she decides that she wants to hate Ren then I'm not going to go out of my way to change my mind. She's my best friend and Ren _hurt_ her.

"He won't get off the hook that easily."

Yashiro nodded. "Any help would be welcome."

Kanae smiled. "Okay then. As long as that's understood.

"Now I've got to put this stuff away. See you later."

Yashiro watched as she wandered over to the lift and he couldn't help but feel lighter than he had in days.

Though that could be because he wasn't weighed down with twelve bags of shopping anymore.

* * *

**Woo! All drawing to a close now!**

**Thoughts?**

**DS**


	24. Thursday 24th: Christmas Eve

**This advent passed by very fast. I can't believe that this is the penultimate chapter! :O**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

* * *

Advent 09

December 24th – Christmas Eve

* * *

Yashiro groaned as he shifted in his bed, his muscles protesting every movement.

If he'd have known that he would be in such pain today he would never have agreed to take the girls shopping yesterday. He had pulled the muscles in his back and arms.

He had pulled muscles he didn't even know he had.

The room was still dark, even though it was mid-morning. Thank God for heavy curtains and a late sunrise. He slowly rolled over, trying to find the perfect position.

Ah, there it was. Smiling happily to himself he started to sink back into sleep when a knock on the door disturbed him.

Groaning he debated whether or not to answer. After a short mental debate with himself he decided that getting up right now would be detrimental to his health. He snuggled deeper into his pillow.

The knock came again, this time a voice called out to him from the hallway as well. "Yashiro? Are you up?"

Ren.

Damn it! He couldn't ignore him.

Sighing, Yashiro levered himself out of the bed, wincing as the muscles twinged in pain. "I'm coming!" he called out as he slowly shuffled across the room. "Yes, Ren?" he asked politely through the crack in the door.

Ren looked him over worriedly, "Er...you don't look so good."

Yashiro waved off his concern, "Nothing that some painkillers and rest won't fix. Now what was it you wanted?"

"I was just wondering if you talked to Kyoko yet?"

Yashiro sighed and resisted the temptation to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I did try to talk to her, yes."

"And?"

Ren sounded hopeful and Yashiro really didn't want to be the one to destroy that. Instead he chose his words very carefully. "I think that you should talk to her yourself. It will mean more if it comes directly from you. You could pull her away tonight and ask her then."

"Tonight?" Ren asked looking confused.

"At the ball?"

The confusion didn't leave Ren's face.

"Oh, for! Did _nobody_ see the sign in the lobby?"

"Er..."

"Never mind." Yashiro cut him off. "There's a Christmas Ball tonight and the girls are going. Just talk to Kyoko there as I'm sure that she won't want to make a huge scene."

Ren nodded, thinking over the plan. "That makes sense."

"I know it does. I thought of it." Yashiro mumbled under his breath.

"Did you say something?"

Yashiro sighed. "No, no I didn't. Was there anything else you needed?"

Ren shrugged, "Well, I just found out about this Christmas Ball. How long has that sign been up anyway?"

"Don't really know. You'd have to ask someone who works here."

"Yeah. _Anyway_, just wondering if you'd like to come and buy a suit for it today?"

"NO!" Yashiro shouted. At Ren's wide eyed look he blushed a deep shade of red. "I mean, I'm still a little tired and was planning to relax for a while longer. I already have a perfectly good suit."

"O...kay then." Ren said slowly. "I'll see you tonight?"

Yashiro nodded and waved the younger man off. Phew! Dodged a bullet there! He shuffled back over to his bed and flopped down, shuffling back under the covers.

This was a holiday and it was drawing to a close. He'd damn well spend it how he liked.

He grinned to himself as he fell back asleep.

---/---

The ball was in full swing by the time Kyoko and Kanae made it downstairs.

Both girls took a few moments to look out over the packed ballroom, taking in the chatting throng of people and the live music playing in the background.

The room had been decorated in sparkling white lights and silver tinsel, obviously going for the icy wonderland theme.

Having taken in all this Kyoko then turned her sights on trying to find anyone else from their group at the party. A few moments later and she was dragging Kanae across the dance floor to meet up with Lory and Maria.

"Kyoko!" Maria called out, wrapping her arms around the older girl in a hug.

"Maria! Happy Birthday." Kyoko said with a smile, Kanae wishing the younger girl the same well wishes.

"Here." Kyoko said, handing over a small package. "This is from Kanae and I."

Both girls watched fondly as the birthday girl ripped open the paper wrapping and gasped in delight.

"The necklace is from me." Kanae said, "And the bracelet is from Kyoko. They both have your birthstones in, see?"

Maria clutched the present close to her chest. "Thank you so much!" She said happily.

Lory chuckled beside her. "Why don't you put them on?" He asked.

"Yeah!"

Kyoko knelt down and helped Maria with the clasps when it looked like she was having difficulty. "There," she said, "it's done. They suit you. You look pretty."

Maria smiled. "Thank you."

Lory smiled at the tow older girls as well as he picked up his granddaughter and seated her against his hip. "Why don't you two go and enjoy yourselves?" he asked, "Maria and I won't be staying down here for much longer as it's soon going to be past her bedtime."

"Okay then, sir. Have a good night!" Kyoko and Kanae said as they waved goodbye to their employer.

"So what now?" Kanae asked.

"Want to go get something to drink?"

Kanae shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

---/---

It wasn't until very late in the evening that Kyoko ran into Ren. She still didn't really want to talk to him but her initial anger of what he had done had calmed down, somewhat.

What did annoy her was that he accosted her just as she had spotted Sho standing by himself on the veranda.

"Kyoko-chan." Ren said, so quietly that she struggled to hear him over the music.

"Yes?" She asked shortly.

"I...need to apologise to you. What I did was wrong and I've obviously hurt you.

"I never meant to hurt you. That wasn't my intentions at all, I just wanted to spend more time with..." he trailed off, "I mean...that is...I felt jealous, and I may have acted unreasonably because of it."

"Ren." Kyoko said, sneaking a glance to see if Sho had disappeared again. "You really hurt me, not only because of what you did to me and Sho.

"I know that you couldn't have known about the snowstorm so I can't blame you for that. But the fact is that you purposefully took us out on that run. I..." she hesitated, "Then you _lied _to me?

"Tried to manipulate me against Sho and Sho against me?"

Ren ducked his head. "I know. I don't deserve to be forgiven for that..."

Kyoko sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Look, I'm still trying to decide just what I should feel about all of this.

"I just know that I don't really want to talk about this now. Could you excuse me?"

Ren stepped aside as she walked past without a backwards glance.

Was this it?

---/---

Sho was still on the veranda when Kyoko joined him.

He had been thinking about everything that had been happening this past month and was feeling tired about it all. He didn't look at Kyoko when she stepped up beside him and neither of them said anything – choosing to just look out at the view.

After a few minutes of silence Kyoko seemed to become increasingly nervous. She opened her mouth to speak but Sho cute her off before a word could leave her lips.

"You know," he started, "I couldn't really figure it out. I was just trying to be nice to you – but no matter what I did it always seemed to get thrown back into my face, whether by circumstance or because you decided that I deserved it or something.

"I was really trying hard, and I don't even remember _why_ anymore.

"I'm pretty sure that I'm supposed to remember that.

"And when we were trapped...you _forgave_ me. I know I probably didn't deserve it after what I said about you and made you do, but still...you _forgave_ me.

"And then you practically threw that back in my face." He turned to look at Kyoko, his face blank. "I'm tired Kyoko. Tired of being blamed for stuff that I didn't do because you wither think that I deserve it. I just...if you weren't going to forgive me in the first place then why would you say so?"

Kyoko pressed her lips together, unable to come up with a response.

Sho sighed tiredly. "I thought so. Look. I'm going to go...somewhere. Maybe get Shoko to book us into a different hotel for the rest of our stay here or something before I start on my tour." He turned and started to walk off, raising his hand in farewell. "Good_bye_ Kyoko."

* * *

**Dun dun duuuuuuuun!**


	25. Friday 25th: Christmas Day

**So, this is it eh? Another Advent down and finished.**

**Surprisingly, I enjoyed writing this year's advent a lot more than last year's – I think that's because I didn't have a strict plotline when I started and just wanted to put the characters into amusing situations. Hopefully you all found it amusing too, I'd be glad to know that **_**someone**_** got a laugh out of a chapter or two.**

**The good thing is with the story being less strict I find myself still able to write – unlike last year where I was put off writing anything at all for about six months. I even managed to get inspired! (And no! I'm not telling you what it is – you're just going to have to keep an eye out for it!)**

**Now all I have to do is find a way to convince my friend to let me steal her books for a few months so I can write it! **

**Yeeeeah...maybe not...**

**So. What I want to say is thanks. Thanks for clicking and reading this story! You can have a cookie at the end :) I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and I'll see you next year!**

* * *

**Warning: slight OOC-ness – though I try to keep it as IC as possible.**

**Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter are not mine – the plot is though, as well as the skiing events which I put the characters through. They're **_**all**_** mine.**

**Beta'd by ****Aerisiera**

Advent 09

December 25th – Christmas Day

* * *

Kyoko watched as Sho walked back through the crowd in the ballroom, losing him for a moment before she spied him as he slipped out the front door into the lobby.

She was trembling, needing to move but unable to do so. Sho's speech had her frozen, her mind repeating what he said over and over again.

Did he really think that?

Or, more importantly, did she really act that way towards him even before Ren had said anything.

She thought back and was horrified to realise that she had. Though, _really_, it wasn't her entire fault. There had been a pretty good reason as to why she had been suspicious of Sho. Nevertheless, her reactions to him had been disproportional.

She tried to remember just what her reasoning's were, but she couldn't remember. Either it was too far back or she just didn't have any. She hoped that it was the length of time that was affecting her memories.

She shook herself out of her thoughts and was startled to find that she had been thinking to herself for far longer than she had realised.

Panic gripped her. Had Sho said that he would leave immediately?

She couldn't remember.

If so then she needed to find him quick. She wanted...no, _needed_...to explain. If he wouldn't listen to her then she would just have to _make_ him listen. It was only now that she was starting to realise just what she was in the process of throwing away and she wanted to salvage as much of the relationship she had with Sho as possible.

Dodging through the crowd of people she wound her way across the room. Getting to the lobby she looked around, trying to figure out just where Sho would go. Her eyes passed over the front doors hurriedly before she blinked and looked back. Sho was there, standing just outside and huddling from the cold in his suit jacket.

Kyoko quickly strode towards him but as she neared where he was standing she drew to a stop, hesitating as she looked at his back.

If she went out there now would he just run from her?

She didn't think that she could bare it if he did. It would just be one more kick in the teeth from this whole debacle.

She glanced behind her, back to the ballroom where she could hear laughter and see people having a good time, warm and happy. She sighed and stood tall, straightening her spine and tilting her chin up.

No. She would not run back there. She was going to do this even if it hurt her. She wouldn't live with herself if she thought herself a coward.

Even so, she needed to do this fast.

Taking a deep breath for courage she pushed the door open quickly and called out immediately. "Sho!"

Sho startled and spun around, almost slipping. His eyes were wide until he realised just _who_ had called out his name. Once he had he sighed and turned back to face the empty night.

"I thought I said goodbye."

Kyoko stomped around until she was standing in front of him, refusing to let him just not look at her. "Well _I_ didn't say goodbye."

Sho shrugged, "Go ahead then."

Kyoko made a noise of frustration. "Ok," she said, "That was a bit misleading. What I meant to say was I'm not _going_ to say goodbye."

"What?" Sho asked in confusion, "You can't just deci–"

"Na!" Kyoko said in annoyance, effectively shutting up any protests he was in the middle of making. "You've already had your impassioned speech. It's my turn now."

"This isn't a film." He said dryly.

Kyoko glared which only seemed to alarm him. _At least he's quiet_, she thought.

"Sho." She started, suddenly a lot more nervous now that she was actually forcing him to listen to what she had to say. It was only now that she was realising that their entire relationship was hanging on this conversation. "You were my best friend growing up. I saw you as family, as...I don't know...someone _more_. I was in love with you, but being close to you brought me nothing but jealousy and pain.

"Even so I stayed by you, not because you made me feel smug that I was closer to you than the other girls but because I liked you.

"You broke my heart, Sho." Kyoko was satisfied to see that Sho looked uncomfortable, shifting in position. "You broke my heart. And don't say that you didn't know I was in love with you because you damn well did."

Sho licked his lips, "I...didn't mean for you to hear it."

Kyoko nodded at his admission, it was the truth. Besides, she couldn't really become angry at him all over again for it because she had already forgiven him in her heart.

"Still." She continued, "I didn't trust you anymore. Didn't trust _anyone_ anymore, really. So can you blame me for being suspicious about your motives when you suddenly started to act nicely towards me?

"You never explained, and true, I probably wouldn't have believed you at that time either, but it still looked really, _really_ bad from my point of view."

"I'm sorry." Sho apologised but Kyoko brushed it off, shaking her head.

"No, I'm not saying this to you to get you to apologise. I'm just trying to explain. I..." She sighed heavily and wrapped her arms around herself.

"When we were trapped you said some things, you explained that you had made a mistake – that you regretted being so stupid – and you asked for my forgiveness.

"I gave it to you."

Sho frowned in incomprehension, "Yes. And I'm really grateful that you did but..."

"Sho." Kyoko cut him off. "I made a mistake. Will you please forgive me?"

Sho stared at her in shock, disbelief clear upon his face. Kyoko nervously waited for his answer. She couldn't help but be amused by the role-reversal.

"Yes. Of course."

His answer was said softly but Kyoko still heard it. All at once it felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and she smiled brightly at him. "Thank you."

He shifted uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck. Kyoko was happy though, there had been a small part of her that thought that Sho would still act like he had all those months ago and use her vulnerability against her. But he didn't and the thought warmed her.

She shivered violently.

Sho looked at her in surprise which quickly turned into a little annoyance. "Here." He said, shimmying out of his jacket and dropping it around her shoulders. "I can't believe that you came out here in only that! We were just in the hospital last week!"

"Excuse me." Kyoko said, her teeth chattering in cold. "I just followed _you_ outside."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Sho said defensively.

Kyoko rolled her eyes and snuggled deeper into his jacket, delighting in the borrowed warmth. "Hey," she said after a moment of silence. "Where are the reporters? Shouldn't they be here?"

"The hotel guests have been complaining about not being able to leave the hotel so the police moved them away from the front doors. They're about half a mile down the road."

"Oh," Kyoko said, "That makes sense. Why didn't they just do that before?"

"Apparently something spooked them two days ago, so when the police insisted that they move away they only put up a token resistance."

"Two days?" Kyoko asked, "I must have missed whatever it was. That was the day that Kanae and I went shopping."

Sho shrugged then blinked and looked at her again. "Oh," he said, "I just realised. Today's your birthday."

Kyoko looked startled at the news, she had completely forgotten. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"I don't really have anything for you." Sho said, sounding regretful. He thought about it for a moment and just when Kyoko was about to protest that he didn't need to get her anything his face lit up.

"I know." He said brightly, then leaned forward and kissed her.

Kyoko could only stand there, Sho's lips burning against her own. It was chaste and quick. It didn't linger like she had heard so many other girls describe their kisses as and his lips weren't smooth – they were chapped from the cold air.

But he was warm and solid and _there_ and she could still feel the heat when he pulled away.

She smiled.

---/---

When Yashiro finally caught up with Lory it was just as he was heading off to his room, Maria asleep in his arms.

Yashiro didn't really want to hold Lory up any longer but he couldn't wait to talk to him until the next time he saw him. Yashiro needed to let the President know that he had made a mistake as soon as possible because if he put it off then there was an increasing chance that his position would be filled.

"President Takarada!" He said, trying to catch his attention without shouting and waking the sleeping girl.

It worked and Lory turned to look enquiringly at Yashiro.

"I...just. Um..." Yashiro tried to say, suddenly at a loss about how one went to beg for his job back.

"Yes, Yashiro-san?" Lory asked politely.

Yashiro shrugged to himself; maybe it would be better just to get it over quickly with. "I made a mistake." He rushed out, "I've changed my mind, I still want to be Ren's manager."

"Oh?" Lory asked, raising an eyebrow, "But I thought you said that Ren didn't trust you anymore and that was why you couldn't do the job."

"We...er..." Yashiro stammered, feeling a blush creep up his neck, "We made up."

"That's _wonderful_ news!" Lory exclaimed delightedly.

Yashiro stared at him, "So," he asked after a moment, "does that mean –?"

"Yes, yes." Lory answered him. "Of course you can have your job back. Truth be told I wasn't really prepared to let the situation between Ren and you lie. I'd been brainstorming ideas as to how to get you two back together."

Yashiro shivered. Ok, now he was glad he had looked out Lory before the President could start to implement whatever crazy scheme that he had cooked up.

"Thank you." Yashiro said, bowing.

"No need to thank me." Lory said with a smile. "But you must excuse me. I've got to put Maria to bed."

"Of course." Yashiro nodded. "I will see you tomorrow Takarada-san."

Lory nodded and walked over to the lifts. Yashiro watched him leave feeling happier than he had since the beginning of the holiday. Everything seemed to be looking up.

---/---

Sho and Kyoko had quickly abandoned standing outside in the cold, especially when they realised that it had started to snow again.

Sho was holding Kyoko by the hand as he led her back into the ballroom, keeping her hand warm.

For some reason her face also felt warm as well.

The noise inside seemed even louder after they had spent time alone and Kyoko could hardly hear herself think. That was why she didn't think to ask just where Sho was leading her until he stopped.

"What?" She asked, then caught sight of Ren and blanked her face, trying to pull away from Sho.

He wouldn't let go however, his grip tightening but not so much that it was painful. "Kyoko." He said, and for some reason Kyoko could hear him fine despite the loudness of the room. "I think you should forgive him."

Kyoko stared at him. "Why?" she asked.

Sho shifted but didn't let go of her hand. "You forgave me."

"And?"

"And I did something much worse than he did!" Sho said frustrated. "He did what he did because he cares for you. I don't agree on how he went about it but I really can't say anything about that because I'd turn into a hypocrite."

"But I forgave you because you asked for it." Kyoko denied stubbornly.

"And he didn't?" Sho asked.

"Well..." Kyoko looked away.

"Kyoko," Sho said, brushing his fingers against her jaw and turning her head so that she had to look at him again. "The man had good intensions. And he really is sorry – even _I_ can see that. You don't have to completely trust him again straight away, hell, I don't expect you to trust _me_ right now, but forgiveness isn't the same as trust.

"Besides," he added, smiling, "It's Christmas! Peace and Goodwill and all that rot."

Kyoko snorted in amusement which quickly died out when she turned her gaze to look at Ren again. He really did seem sorry about what he had done.

She sighed and unlinked her fingers from Sho's, trying to ignore the jittery feeling in her stomach she got when he smiled at her.

Silently she made her way over to where Ren was standing.

"Ren-san." She said, and ignored the way that he jumped as she startled him. He opened his mouth to say something to her but she cut him off. "I don't think that I can trust you fully again, so soon at least. But I can kind of...sort of understand your motives behind why you did what you did."

Ren looked at her in confusion as she held out her hand. "I think we should start over.

"Hi. I'm Kyoko Mogami."

The corner of Ren's lips twitched as he reached forward and shook her hand. "Ren Tsuruga. It's a pleasure to meet you. I hope we become friends."

"I hope so too."

* * *

**The End. (And for those of you that were wondering, Kanae spent the whole night dancing :P)**

**Hope you've had an awesome advent and a Merry Christmas. If you're not Christian then I hope you've enjoyed whatever religious festival that you celebrate, if you aren't religious I hope you've had an enjoyable holiday and if you haven't had a holiday then I hope a chapter a day has a least brightened up the month for you.**

**See you in the New Year!**

**DS**


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